LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 

No registration of title of this book 
as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
tion has been found. 

Forwarded to Order Division <^L.'.'^-f/S-P-L 

(Date) 
(6, i, 1906—2,000. ) 




Book .04 2. U -3 




Rev. LEWIS DAVIS, D. D. 

First Agent and, for Eighteen Years, President of Otterbein 

University, and Father of Higher Education in the 

United Brethren Church 



OTTERBEIN 
UNIVERSITY 

1847—1907 






With an Introduction by 




Nineteen Hundred and Seven 

UNITED BRETHREN PUBLISHING HOUSE 

W. R. Funk, Publisher 

Dayton, Ohio 



u 



luBRAfft of C- 

] Two Copies rtet; » 

1 JAN 30 1^08 

JL-iSs XXc. to. 

COPY 8. 



44- M 



Received From 
Copyright Office. 
27 F '08 



-4M rights reserved 

United Brethren Publishing House 

Dayton, Ohio 



i 



Sf 



©ebtcafton 



To the memory of the departed fathers, who, 
sixty years ago, laid the foundations of Otter- 
bein University; to the many living and dead, 
who, since the fathers, have helped either to 
promote the material welfare of the institu- 
tion or to carry forward its work of instruc- 
tion; to all who, in any way, by speech, or 
prayer, or gift, during the past Sixty Years, 
have "shared in the work, this volume is, 
with sincere appreciation, inscribed. 



PREFACE 



When the Board of Trustees of Otterbein University 
decided to observe the sixtieth anniversary of the insti- 
tution by a suitable celebration at the commencement 
in 1907, it, at the same time, requested the writer to pre- 
pare a history of the university to be published in con- 
nection with the celebration. The volume herewith pre- 
sented was prepared in response to this request in the 
hope that it might add interest to the occasion. The 
fact, however, that the author has had personal knowl- 
edge of the work and fortunes of the institution for nine- 
tenths of the entire period of sixty years, and, with a 
half-dozen exceptions, was personally acquainted with 
every one of the men and women who, during this long 
period, shared in the work, causes him to feel all the 
more keenly how deficient and inadequate is the record 
presented. To accord a few lines, or, at most, a few 
pages to those who, through many years of faithful and 
efficient service, wrought the best there was in them of 
heart and brain, and life, into the university would seem 
to be very scant justice, but it was all that was possible 
in the limits proposed. He has endeavored to be impar- 
tial and deal squarely with all concerned. Errors of 
judgment there doubtless are in the book, unfortunate 
omissions there may be, but there are absolutely no in- 
tentional neglects or slights. As sources of informa- 
tion, other than those noted in the progress of the nar- 
rative, the author has consulted the minutes of the board 
of trustees, the files of the Religious Telescope, the Otter- 
bein Record, and the Aegis. But very largely, the reader 
must bear in mind, the facts set forth are matters of 
personal observation and recollection. While he can- 
not hope to have escaped all error through misappre- 
hension in observation or lapse of memory in recollec- 
tion, he believes the narrative will be found quite gen- 
erally true to the facts, and trustworthy. 

H. G. 

Westerville, Ohio, May, 1901. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEE I 
Beginning of the Work of Higher Education 
in the United Brethren Church. 9 

CHAPTER II 
Stir in the Conferences — Founding of Otter- 
bein University by Scioto Conference. 19 

CHAPTER III 

Rev." Lewis Davis, D.D., Father of Higher Edu- 
cation in the United Brethren Church. 36 

CHAPTER IV 
Agitation and Debate. 49 

CHAPTER V 
The Opening of Otterbein University and 
Beginning of its Work. 66 

CHAPTER VI 

Co-education in Otterbein University. 79 

CHAPTER VII 
Early Financial Methods and Struggles. 94 

CHAPTER VIII 

Failure of the Manual-Labor Experiment and 
Wreck of the Scholarship Endowment 
Plan. 113 

CHAPTER IX 
Otterbein University, Slavery, and the War 
of the Rebellion. 129 



CHAPTER X 
Otterbein University and Temperance— The 
Westerville Whisky War. 145 

CHAPTER XI 
XiIterary Societies— Absence of Fraternities. 166 

CHAPTER XII 

Progress of the Work Since 1860, and Account 
of Some who Shared in it. 178 

CHAPTER XIII 
The Church and Christian Organizations in 
Otterbein University. 229 

CHAPTER XIV 
Music, Art, and Other Features. 264 

CHAPTER XV 

Early History of Westerville— Its Growth 
and Progress. 288 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Rev. Lewis Davis, Frontispiece. 

Rev. William Hanby. 

Faculty of 1859. 

Rev. William Slaughter. 

Rev. Jonathan Weaver. 

Rev. J. B. Resler. 

Rev. Henry A. Thompson. 

Rev. D. Bender. 

Rev. D. R. Miller. 

Rev. S. M. Hippard. 

Blown-Up Saloon Buhdings, 1875 and 1879. 

Prof. John Haywood. 

Prof. Thos. McFadden. 

Picture of Four Buildings. 

Prof. John E. Guitner. 

Mrs. Caroline Merchant. 

Rev. Henry Garst. 

Solomon Keister. 

Prof. Thos. J. Sanders. 

D. L. Rike. 

John Hulitt. 

George Scott. 

Christian Association and Gymnasium Building. 

George A. Lambert. 

Rev. Lewis Bookwalter. 

Power House and Heating Plant. 

Philip G. Cochran Memorial Hall. 

Mrs. Sarah B. Cochran. 

Westerville Public School Building. 

Otterbein University, Main Building. 

Present Faculty. 



INTRODUCTION 



Than the story of the founding of a Christian college, 
its struggles, its trials, and its triumphs, there is none 
more interesting; none more profitable. 

It calls for men of heroic fiber, men of vision, men 
of faith, men of unselfish devotion to a high ideal. 

Christian education is fundamental and vital in the 
work of the church. If it is not the heart, it is, indeed, 
the life-blood that flows through all the departments of 
this organism, giving strength, beauty, and efficiency. 
Through a mistaken conception, too long, far too long, 
this work was delayed. But with lapse of time came 
clarified vision and correct conception, and three score 
years ago men of God laid in faith and prayer the foun- 
dations of our beloved Otterbein. They builded better 
than they knew. 

This is the story of the founding of a college, a Chris- 
tian college, the evolution of the thoughts, opinions, con- 
victions; resulting in deeds great and heroic; of self- 
sacrificing devotion and loyalty seldom surpassed. It is 
not only the story of the founding of a college, but also 
of the building and developing of it from the humblest 
beginnings to the splendid proportions of the present; 
growth from two buildings to seven; from two teachers 
to twenty-five; from gifts of one dollar in three annual 
installments to single gifts of twenty, twenty-five, and 
thirty thousand dollars; from a plant costing in the be- 
ginning thirteen hundred dollars, and that all debt, to 
a plant whose present valuation is over three hundred 
thousand dollars, and all of this in the face of a debt, 
that, despite all efforts at liquidation, had for half a cen- 
tury a general trend upwards till it reached the enor- 
mous sum of more than one hundred and thirty thousand 
dollars, the annual interest of which at that time was 



greater than the pay roll of the entire faculty — a veri- 
table cancer eating out the life of the institution — a mill- 
stone about its neck ready to drown it in the sea. 

There is to be found in this book the story of the 
rising from despair, the rallying of the forces, and the 
repeated attacks on this incubus of debt till that enemy 
was vanquished and victory achieved. 

What the thoughts, what the conceptions of education 
in the mind of the fathers; shall this first school be in- 
dustrial, technical, or liberal; shall it be open to all 
races, sexes, and colors, will be fully set forth in this 
work. Who were the builders, both from within and 
without, will also be told here. Here will be found a 
galaxy of brave men and women, our eleventh chapter 
of Hebrews worthies. 

It is of the utmost importance that this story be put in 
permanent form before it is too late, that it perish not 
from the earth, but remain a perpetual blessing and in- 
spiration to all coming generations. 

We are told that John, the beloved disciple, the esoteric 
of the esoterics, who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last 
Supper, saw his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
was with him in the Garden of Gethsemane, stood with 
him at the cross, out-ran Peter to the sepulcher on Sun- 
day morning, and witnessed his ascension into heaven, 
John who had the inestimable privilege of being the 
most intimate earthly friend of Jesus, and had outlived 
the rest of the disciples and apostles, and had taught and 
preached the Word some fifty or sixty years after the 
ascension, was impelled by the Spirit and exhorted by his 
disciples and contemporary bishops, before he went 
hence, to put in writing what he for so long, as eye- 
witness, had preached and taught. 

The result was "the most influential book in all litera- 
ture," "the pearl of the Evangelic histories," "the spirit- 
ual gospel," "the unique, tender, preeminent gospel," the 
last, the sweetest, the best in the sacred cannon. 

In like manner the author of this volume, Dr. Henry 
Garst, moved by the Spirit and urged by his friends, has 
set to himself the task of making forever permanent the 
history of the first sixty years of Otterbein University. 
He is fitted as no other living person for the performance 
of this task. He is an eye-witness, or a contemporary 
of eye-witnesses, covering the entire period. Since 



1853, as student, professor, preacher in cooperating 
territory, president, secretary, and treasurer, college 
pastor, and as historian, he has been most closely iden- 
tified with all its life and history. In all the fifty- 
four years he has given the college in every way un- 
flinching loyalty and devotion, and in all the great 
crises he has thrown himself, with all his splendid 
powers, unreservedly into the breach. 

He is a rare man, great and good; a man of mature 
judgment, extensive research, ripe scholarship, literary 
taste and ability as a writer, and, imbued with the 
love of truth, he has placed all lovers of higher learn- 
ing, and especially all friends of Otterbein University, 
under lasting obligation for the work undertaken and 
completed in this volume. 

The book is the product of years of thought and pains- 
taking labor — the ripe fruit and crowning achievement 
of a long and eminently useful life, and we believe it 
will meet the hearty approval of all readers. It is 
worthy of a place in all our homes. 

May the coming generations as they read here the 
story of self-sacrifice and unfaltering devotion to duty, 
and learn at what great cost this priceless legacy is be- 
queathed to them, be fired with a like holy zeal and 
faith and loyalty, to the end that the fathers shall not 
have labored in vain, but that our precious institution 
of learning may be an ever-increasing blessing to 
humanity. 

T. J. Sanders. 



HISTORY OF OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY 



CHAPTER I. 

Beginning of the Work of Higher Education in the United 
Brethren Church — Founding of a College Recommended, 

Otterbein University was the first institution of 
higher education founded by the Church of the 
United Brethren in Christ. As the pioneer of the 
educational work, its history is invested with an 
interest possessed by no other college of the 
Church. In 1847, when it was founded, the 
Church had already existed and wrought for more 
than half a century, and the inquiry very naturally 
% arises why the work of higher education was so 
long delayed. Philip William Otterbein, the 
founder of the United Brethren Church, had been 
carefully educated in Germany, both in the arts 
and in theology, and it would have seemed natural 
that he should give early attention to this work in 
America, and in connection with the new Church 
which in the providence of God he was instru- 
mental in founding. 

To understand this matter it is necessary to con- 
sider the conditions as they existed in the latter part 
of the eighteenth and the early part of the nine- 
teenth century, in the part of the United States 
in which the Church had its origin. Otterbein and 
his associates in gospel labors were Germans, 

9 



History of Otterbein University 

and, as was to be expected, devoted their efforts 
almost altogether to the German population of 
this country. In that early day, when the country 
was yet new, the people generally found it a hard 
struggle to secure the necessities of life and main- 
tain themselves in comfort, and so had little ability 
or inclination to engage in higher educational 
work. The people whom these early German 
preachers sought to reach were largely rural and 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, very few of them 
having anything more than the most limited edu- 
cational training. Laboring among such a people, 
the necessity and importance of higher education 
was not so apparent as it has since become. Hard 
sense and a genuine Christian experience seemed 
the matters of chief importance, and with these 
the pioneers of that early day could go forth suc- 
cessfully, and by their fervid appeals could "stir 
whole townships," as one expressed it, and win 
large numbers to Christ, 

The prominence of the reform spirit in the 
Church also had to do with the delay in taking up 
the educational work. It is this reform spirit, in- 
deed, mainly, which accounts for the existence of 
the Church itself. The Church of the United 
Brethren in Christ bore very much the same rela- 
tion to the German-speaking people and churches 
of this country that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church bore to the English-speaking people and 
churches. As to these churches, it is now conceded 
on all hands that they had grown quite formal and 
lifeless, and that many of their members were 
leading openly irregular lives. This was especially 

10 



Beginning of Higher Education 

true of some of the older and stronger churches, in 
which culture was most common. Laboring in such 
a time, and among such a people, the matter of 
supreme urgency seemed to be a ringing call to re- 
pentance and a good life, and to such a work the 
fathers of the United Brethren Church gave them- 
selves with such exclusive devotion as afforded 
little time to found and maintain educational insti- 
tutions. It is fair to add that some of these fath- 
ers, seeing the churches in which culture was most 
common under the sway of a lifeless formalism, 
concluded, in a not very logical, but very natural 
way, that there was some connection between 
higher education and the spiritual death so preva- 
lent in their day; and so. they not only failed to 
see the necessity of the educational work, but some 
of them actually feared it as hostile to the spiritual 
life and power of the Church. 

For reasons such as these the early United 
Brethren Church, instead of planting colleges, 
was as a voice crying in the wilderness, calling 
formal churches and a sinful world alike to repent- 
ance. By their earnest and faithful warnings 
these bold and faithful, if somewhat rude and un- 
polished champions of the gospel awakened to con- 
viction and led to repentance multitudes both in 
and out of the churches. This seemed to them the 
all-important work, and, this done, they seemed 
content, and for a long time did not even contem- 
plate a new and separate church organization. In 
this way it happened that those who were won to 
Christ in these formal churches largely remained 
in communion with them, while those who were 

11 



History of Otterbein University 

won from the world mainly drifted into existing 
church organizations. It was hardly to be ex- 
pected, however, that these zealous and spiritual 
converts would find congenial and helpful homes 
in these formal and lifeless churches. Could they 
have done so, probably there would have been no 
thought of a new church organization. But lack 
of sympathy, at times, with the new spirit and life 
of these converts, positive opposition and perse- 
cution at other times, gradually made it evident 
that if these living converts would enjoy the best 
opportunities for growth and development, as well 
as to labor for the salvation of sinners, it must be 
in a new church organization, and so these con- 
verts from many diverse communions, as well as 
from the world, by force of circumstances rather 
than by design, drifted together into a new com- 
munion. 

For many years the fathers of the United 
Brethren Church put so little emphasis upon 
membership in the church in comparison with 
the new birth and spiritual life, that compar- 
atively little effort was made to induce persons to 
join the Church, and nearly all effort was directed 
to assure spiritual life and experience. It was an 
instance, so common in history, of one extreme pro- 
ducing an opposite extreme. When our fathers 
observed the disproportionate importance at- 
tached to mere membership in the church, which 
led multitudes to rest content with such member- 
ship, though destitute of all true Christian exper- 
ience, it produced a revulsion which led them to 
underrate the importance of membership in the 

12 



Beginning of Higher Education 

church, if only there were spiritual life and exper- 
ience. The latter is undoubtedly a far less mis- 
chievous error than the former, yet it is an error, 
the mischief of which appeared in the fact that the 
growth of the new Church was not at all commen- 
surate with the success of those faithful evangel- 
ists in winning souls to Christ. This kept the 
Church numerically and organically weak, and so 
delayed entrance upon the work of higher educa- 
tion. After more than a half century of toil, dur- 
ing which there were many and sweeping revivals, 
in which multiplied thousands were won to Christ, 
the Church numbered barely 30,000 members, 
while there was no connectional institution except 
a small publishing house, located at Circleville, 
Ohio. 

Times, however, were beginning to change. The 
forests were being cleared away and the country 
settled. Towns and cities were springing up, 
the public school system was taking form, and edu- 
cation was becoming more prevalent and common. 
The Church was coming to a definite conscious- 
ness of a broad and permanent mission, and when 
the more sagacious of the fathers were beginning 
to realize that no distinctively German church or- 
ganization in this country was destined to be per- 
manent, the labors of the Church began to pass 
rapidly from the German to the English-speaking 
people of the country. The problems before the 
Church were becoming larger and more difficult, 
and it was becoming very apparent that if the 
Church would deal with these problems and con- 

13 



History of Otterbein University 

tinue an efficient evangelizing agency, she must 
enter upon the work of higher education. 

This necessity was further impressed upon the 
fathers of the Church by what they saw going on 
about them. Other churches were founding col- 
leges in the territory in which they were laboring. 
This was especially true in Ohio, in which the 
United Brethren Church began her labors at the 
very beginning of the last century. In this State, 
besides the two State institutions, Ohio Univer- 
sity at Athens, and Miami University at Oxford, 
the Episcopalians had founded Kenyon College at 
Gambier, the Presbyterians, Western Reserve Col- 
lege at Hudson, the Congregationalists, Oberlin 
College at Oberlin and Marietta College at Mar- 
ietta, the Baptists, Denison University at Gran- 
ville, the Lutherans, Wittenburg College at 
Springfield, and the Episcopal Methodists, Ohio 
Wesleyan University at Delaware. Most of these 
colleges were founded but a few years before Otter- 
bein University, and it is plain that in Ohio at 
least the work of founding colleges was in the air. 
and it is not strange that the agitation began to 
stir in the United Brethren Church. This agita- 
tiorj was intensified by the fact that the youth of 
the Church, in increasing numbers, were finding 
their way into these colleges of other churches, and 
in not a few instances were being drawn into the 
communions whose colleges they attended. It be- 
gan to be plain to some of the leaders of the United 
Brethren Church that to enter upon the work of 
higher education was not simply a question of use- 
fulness, but of self-preservation. 

14 



Beginning of Higher Education 

And yet to these Church fathers, uneducated 
themselves, and wholly inexperienced in such 
work, with a membership not only so limited, but 
widely scattered from Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Virginia on the east, to Michigan and Iowa 
on the west, with no members of large wealth, and 
the mass of the members positively poor, the work 
of founding a college must have seemed quite for- 
midable. But this limited and scattered member- 
ship, with dearth of resources, was not the only 
or the most serious difficulty to be encountered in 
founding a college. After several generations of 
inactivity in educational work there was not only 
no experience in such work, but little sentiment in 
its favor. The Church had settled down into a 
fearful inertia, an indifference which was likely to 
be stirred to hostility when active efforts in the 
work of higher education should begin. In such a 
situation, if men, even of the highest culture and 
widest experience, had gone forward in the work, 
they would have deserved, and doubtless would 
have received our admiration and praise. What 
measure of admiration and praise, then, shall we 
accord to these fathers of the United Brethren 
Church who, without culture and experience, 
braved all difficulties and went heroically forward 
in the work of higher education. Among these 
fathers none are more worthy of mention than 
Rev. Lewis Davis and Eev. William Hanby, both 
members of Scioto Annual Conference. To the for- 
mer of these, by very general consent, is accorded 
the honorable position of founder of Otterbein 
University, and father of the educational work of 

15 



History of Otterbein University 

the Church. The latter was one of the earliest, 
most trusted, and helpful associates in the work. 
The relation of these fathers to the educational 
work will he set forth later. 

Formidable as the work of founding a college 
must have appeared to these fathers, yet they 
found it a much larger and more difficult task than 
they had anticipated when they undertook it. In 
their inexperience, their ideas of what constituted 
a college, and the amount of money required to 
establish and maintain it, were very inadequate. It 
is doubtless well that it was so, or they might have 
shrunk from the undertaking. The light came as 
they could bear it, and after they were committed 
to the work beyond honorable retreat. 

It was at the General Conference which con- 
vened at Circle ville, Ohio, in May, 1845, that the 
first official action in relation to founding an in- 
stitution of learning was taken by the Church. 
This General Conference was the ninth in the his- 
tory of the Church, the first having been held in 
1815. The second was held in 1817, after an in- 
terval of but two years. Between this and all sub- 
sequent General Conferences there is an interval 
of four years. In the General Conference of 1845, 
nine annual conferences were represented by 
twenty-four ministerial delegates. There were also 
four bishops, Jacob Erb, Henry Kumler, Sr., 
Henry Kumler, Jr., (father and son), and John 
Coons, all of them from Ohio except Bishop Erb, 
who was from Pennsylvania. 

As it is a matter of interest to know who 
the men were who first, in an official way, 

16 



Beginning of Higher Education 

discussed and passed upon the subject of 
higher education in the United Brethren Church, 
their names and the conferences they repre- 
resented, are here inserted : Virginia Conference 
was represented by J. J. Glossbrenner, J. Mark- 
wood, and J. Bachtel; Pennsylvania Conference, 
by John Russell; Allegheny Conference, by J. R. 
Sitman, J. Ritter, and John Reiter; Muskingum 
Conference, by A. Biddle, J. McGaw, and W. W. 
Simpkins ; Wabash Conference, by John Hoobler, 
Josiah Davis, and John Denham: Scioto Confer- 
ence, by J. Montgomery, E. Vandemark, and 
M. Ambrose; Sandusky Conference, by H. G. 
Spayth, George Hiskey, and J. Brown; Miami 
Conference, by George Bonebrake, F. Whitcom, 
and John Crider; Indiana Conference, by Henry 
Bonebrake and J. A. Ball. All these representa- 
tives have passed on to their reward, the last sur- 
vivor, Alexander Biddle, having died at Galion, 
Ohio, in February, 1899. 

It was Rev. E. Vandemark, a representative 
from the Scioto Conference, who brought the sub- 
ject of higher education before the General Con- 
ference by offering the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That proper measures be adopted to 
establish an institution of learning. 

Resolved, That it be recommended to the an- 
nual conferences. 

After earnest discussion these resolutions were 
adopted by a vote of nineteen yeas and five nays, 
as follows : 

Yeas — J. J. Glossbrenner, J. Markwood, J. 
Bachtel, J. Ritter, J. R. Sitman, J. Reiter, Alex- 

2 17 



History of Otterbein University 

ander Biddle, E. Vandemark, Joshua Montgom- 
ery, Mathias Ambrose, H. G. Spayth, George 
Hiskey, J. Brown, George Bonebrake, Francis 
Whitcom, Henry Bonebrake, J. A. Ball, Josiah 
Davis, John Denham — 19. 

Nays — J. McGaw, W. W. Simpkins, John 
Crider, John Hoobler, and H. Kumler, Sr. — 5. 



18 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 



CHAPTEE II. 

Stir in Several Conferences — Founding of Otterbein Uni- 
versity by the Scioto Conference. 

The action of the General Conference of 1845, 
authorizing and recommending the founding of a 
college, was speedily followed by an active canvass 
in a number of the annual conferences. The Gen- 
eral Conference in its action had but given expres- 
sion to the thoughts of a number of the leaders of 
the Church in the annual conferences. These 
leaders were like soldiers ready for battle waiting 
for the word of command from an authoritative 
source, and now that the General Conference had 
authorized the work, they began promptly to agi- 
tate and plan for its accomplishment. The action 
of the General Conference plainly and wisely con- 
templated the founding at the time of but one col- 
lege for the whole Church, but, unfortunately, as 
it now seems, imposed no restriction to this end. 
The recommendation was given to the annual con- 
ferences indiscriminately, of which there were 
nine represented in the General Conference of 
1845, and five more were projected before the Con- 
ference adjourned, making the entire number 
fourteen. 

Had the General Conference exercised its 
authority to limit the work of the founding of 
only one college, the United Brethren Church 

19 



History of Otterbein University 

would have been spared the bitter and costly expe- 
rience of learning the lesson which the Methodist 
Episcopal Church had learned a little earlier and 
some other churches learned later, that it is very 
unwise to attempt to found more colleges than 
there is ability or disposition to sustain. The rec- 
ommendation, however, was without restriction 
except that debts were to be avoided, a restriction 
which is sure to fail when too many colleges are 
projected. The agitation to found a college in the 
United Brethren Church began at about the same 
time, but without much concert of action, in a 
number of the annual conferences. 

The earliest formal action seems to have been 
taken by the Miami Annual Conference, which 
met in Darke County, Ohio, on the 3d of March, 
1846. At this conference the work of founding a 
college was earnestly discussed and the conclusion 
reached to propose to the conferences of northern 
and central Indiana to unite with them in found- 
ing a college at Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana, 
or at such other place as might be mutually agreed 
upon. To this proposition the St. Joseph Confer- 
ence, which met in Kosciusko County, Indiana, in 
October, 1846, responded favorably, pledging it- 
self to cooperate with both influence and money. 
This conference also elected three trustees, the first 
officers of the kind elected in the history of the 
Church, to join with the trustees of other confer- 
ences in the work. Rev. E. H. Lamb, a member 
of this conference, immediately upon the adjourn- 
ment of the conference, published a stirring article 
in the Religious Telescope, vigorously advocating 

20 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

the college project. While thus the Miami and St. 
Joseph conferences were the first to take official 
action in favor of founding a college, circum- 
stances, to be detailed immediately, secured to the 
Scioto Conference, which met in the Bethlehem 
Church, in Pickaway County, near Circleville, 
Ohio, in October, 1846, the honor of leadership in 
the actual work of founding a college. 

A few years before the date just given, the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was zealously en- 
gaged in founding academies and colleges, many 
of which, not receiving adequate patronage and 
support, proved miserable failures. Among these 
failures was an academy called Blendon Young 
Men's Seminary, located at Westerville, Franklin 
County, Ohio, on the direct stage route from 
Columbus, the capital of the State, to* Cleveland, 
twelve miles north of the former place. This 
seminary was founded in 1839. In 1842 the same 
church founded Ohioi Wesleyan University at Del- 
aware, only eighteen miles from Westerville. This 
seemed to seal the fate of the seminary, as it left 
no field from which it could hope for adequate 
patronage and support.. It, however, struggled on 
for a few years, when, becoming involved in a 
troublesome debt, it yielded to its fate and failed. 
At the time Otterbein University was founded it 
had already ceased operations for several years, 
and the property was idle. This, as may well be 
believed, was a sore disappointment to the citizens 
of Westerville, who had contributed of their 
means in the hope that they might enjoy, at home, 
the facilities to educate their children. Such was 

21 



History of Otterbein University 

the situation in Weefeerville and the condition of 
the Blendon Young Men's Seminary in the fall of 
1846. 

The question has often been asked how the 
United Brethren Church came to locate Otterbein 
University at Westerville, at the time an insignifi- 
cant village, a site as swampy as Chicago when 
that city was founded, where the United Brethren 
Church had neither a local habitation nor a name, 
and which was inaccessible except by stage coach or 
by private conveyance. It was certainly at that 
time about the last place that we should now sup- 
pose would be thought of as a location for a college 
for the United Brethren Church. The circum- 
stances which led to the selection of this location, 
for which the author is indebted to a citizen, R. E. 
Arnold, Esq., of Westerville, who died in 1898, 
over ninety-one years of age, who was a trustee of 
the Blendon Young Men's Seminary and thor- 
oughly conversant with the whole transaction, are 
quite interesting. This citizen, while in a clothing 
store in Columbus, kept by a gentleman by the 
name of Harvey Coit, heard two gentlemen, evi- 
dently members of the United Brethren Church, 
and probably ministers, earnestly discussing the 
question of founding a college. The import of 
their discussion was that the time for the United 
Brethren Church to found a college had come; 
that other churches were going forward in this 
work and the United Brethren Church must do so 
or fall to the rear in usefulness. As to location, 
two points were discussed, Circleville, Ohio, and 
Dayton, Ohio, with seeming preference for Day- 

22 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

ton. It was stated that the question would come 
up at the session of the Scioto Conference the week 
following, and some decision would be reached. 
The citizen did not make himself known or learn 
who the persons carrying on the discussion were, 
but on his return to Westerville, confided what he 
had heard to a few leading citizens, with the sug- 
gestion that a meeting of citizens be called to con- 
sider the question of offering to sell the Blendon 
Young Men's Seminary to the United Brethren 
Church. The meeting was called and largely 
attended, and after careful consideration it was 
agreed to appoint a committee who should 
promptly proceed to the Scioto Conference and 
offer the entire property, consisting of eight acres 
of land and two buildings, one a two-story frame 
building and the other a three-story brick dormi- 
tory, for the nominal sum of $1,300, which was 
about the amount of debt with which the seminary 
was burdened. This committee, consisting of Gr. 
W. Landon and Matthew Westervelt, appeared 
before the conference, was courteously received, 
and submitted the proposal with which it was 
charged. The proposition seemed to impress the 
conference very favorably, which promptly ap- 
pointed a committee of three, consisting of L. 
Davis, D. Edwards, and J. Montgomery, to exam- 
ine the proposition carefully and report their 
recommendation to the conference. This com- 
mittee reported back, recommending the imme- 
diate purchase by the conference upon the terms 
offered. This was on the 27th of October, 1846. 
The conference adopted the report of the com- 

23 



History of Otterbein University 

mittee, apparently without any opposition, and 
appointed Rev. W. Hanby, Jonathan Dresbach, 
Esq., and Rev. L. Davis as a purchasing com- 
mittee to complete the transaction. The confer- 
ence at the same time constituted the members of 
the purchasing committee a board of trustees to 
receive a title bond for the property, securing a 
subsequent deed to the trustees appointed by this 
conference, and that may be appointed by the Mus- 
kingum and Sandusky conferences, whose co- 
operation was solicited. This purchasing com- 
mittee, thus clothed with authority, after the 
adjournment of the conference visited Wester- 
ville, looked the property over carefully, and com- 
pleted the purchase without awaiting the action of 
the Muskingum and Sandusky conferences. Thus 
suddenly, and without a dollar of money in hand 
with which to make payment, the Scioto Confer- 
ence found itself in possession of an institution of 
learning, and the first practical step in the work of 
higher education in the United Brethren Church 
was taken. 

Rarely are both parties to a business transaction 
more highly pleased with its consummation than 
were the citizens of Westerville and the members 
of the Scioto Conference with the transfer of the 
Blendon Young Men's Seminary. The citizens of 
Westerville were elated that they had succeeded in 
retrieving their ill fortune in the failure of the 
Blendon Young Men's Seminary, and secured, 
in place of the academy which they had lost, a col- 
lege which should continue the work of higher 
education in their community. The members of 

24 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

the Scioto Conference were elated that they had 
found an institution with buildings and grounds 
all complete, and at a figure far below the original 
cost. So both parties felt that a kind providence 
had greatly favored them. 

It seems a pity to mar this beautiful picture of 
mutual satisfaction, but the truth of history re- 
quires that it be said that in after years the wis- 
dom in the choice of location for the university 
was at times seriously questioned in certain por- 
tions of the cooperating territory. The criticisms 
upon the location chosen seemed determined some- 
what by the fortunes of the university. When 
there was growth and prosperity, there was little 
or no criticism, but when the growth was slow, and, 
in spite of the meager salaries paid professors and 
other employees, the trustees were confronted at 
the end of the year with heavy deficits, resulting 
in a growing and burdensome debt, the agitation 
for removal at times became active as a relief 
measure. So acute did this agitation become at 
times that twice the board of trustees was con- 
strained to open the question of location to the 
competition of the Church in the cooperating ter- 
ritory. This was done first in 1870, after the 
disastrous fire which destroyed the main building, 
inflicting a loss of over forty thousand dollars 
upon the university. The effort to relocate failed, 
but under the pressure of the contest the citi- 
zens of Westerville and their friends contributed 
$35,000 with which the building destroyed by fire 
was replaced by the present main building, a 
building far superior to the one destroyed, which 

25 



History of Otterbein University 

is still giving good service. At the regular session 
of the board in 1900 the question of a change of 
location was again raised and propositions were 
invited. The effort to remove the university was 
far more formidable and determined than that of 
1870, but again failed, though the effort was not 
finally abandoned until January, 1902. The in- 
tensity of the contest developed some bitterness 
and produced some alienations between friends of 
the university, but, upon the whole, resulted in 
much more good than harm. It caused a number 
of the friends to rally to the support of the uni- 
versity with unusual devotion and liberality; it 
spurred the citizens of Westerville to make great 
improvements in the town by installing water- 
works, sanitary sewers, and by paving the streets, 
so that> with natural gas, electric lights, and tele- 
phone exchanges, all the modern conveniences 
enjoyed in our great cities are at the command of 
the citizens of Westerville and of the university, 
and the removal agitation has probably been 
quieted for all time. Though these relocation con- 
tests occurred long after the founding of the insti- 
tution, yet, as they had their basis in the location 
chosen at the beginning, it was deemed best to 
make this brief reference to them at this time. 

The board of trustees chosen by the Scioto Con- 
ference held its first session in Circleville, Ohio, 
December 5, 1846. Its most important action was 
to elect Rev. L. Davis general agent to solicit 
funds and endeavor to secure the cooperation of 
the Sandusky and Muskingum conferences. The 
difficulties encountered and hardships endured in 

20 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

these early educational efforts are set forth, in a 
very interesting way in an address which Rev. L. 
Davis, the agent just named, delivered at the 
annual meeting of the Dayton Alumnal Associa- 
tion of Otterbein University, held at the home of 
Doctor Davis, in Dayton, Ohio, on the evening of 
December 31, 1886, at which a large number of 
the graduates, some members of the faculty, and 
other friends of the university were present. The 
Doctor had been asked to give some reminiscences 
of his early experiences in connection with the col- 
lege, which he did. I give his address as it is 
found in "Our Bishops," by Rev. H. A. Thomp- 
son, D.D., pages 401-405 : 

"I have sometimes feared lest my life might in 
some sense be considered a failure ; but when I see 
this gathering and look at the fruits of this toil I 
am greatly cheered. There are none here who 
were with me in the beginning or who know the 
day when I went to this work. Those that were 
with me have gone home. There hangs the last 
catalogue issued by Otterbein University, and 
there beside it hangs the first catalogue." (These 
were suspended from the chandelier in the parlor.) 
"Between them hangs a tale of forty years' his- 
tory. More than forty years ago, in 1845, the 
General Conference opened the way for collegiate 
education in our Church. It was only an enabling 
act. Then I rubbed my hands and said, That is a 
good thing.' We were young and enthusiastic and 
courageous and ignorant — ignorant of much that 
was to be done in this work. I met with Brother 
Jonathan Dresbach, and we talked of this matter 

27 



History of Otterbein University 

and what the General Conference had done. We 
talked with others. We heard of Blendon Young 
Men's Seminary, at Westerville, with eight acres 
of ground and some buildings. It was in debt and 
could be bought for $1,300. We visited it and 
looked the grounds all over. We concluded that it 
was good and cheap, and so reported to Scioto Con- 
ference, just forty years ago last fall. They 
bought it, with Jonathan Dresbach, William 
Hanby, and L. Davis, trustees. Then we began to 
think of a name. Otterbein University of Ohio 
was suggested. We thought of college. We did 
not just know the difference between a college and 
a university. We thought, somehow, that a uni- 
versity meant more than a college; so we took it 
all in and called it Otterbein University. The 
brethren cast their eyes on me. They wanted me 
to be a tool or arm for them to work with. I was 
then a young presiding elder and was just begin- 
ning to feel the sweets of dignity, but I went into 
the work. That is 'reminiscence.' 

"I wrote a subscription, the first of the Church 
for this educational work. I subscribed and paid 
the first dollar for higher education in this 
Church. It was not much, but it was the first. 
Otterbein was dead. For thirty-four years he had 
been gone to' the church above. He was a great 
and good man; the Church had always revered 
him. We revere him more than ever before now 
as the fruits of his work appear. Great as he was, 
and great as the work he did for the Church and 
the world, he did nothing for higher education, 
neither did his immediate successors. But we went 

28 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

into it — went into it blindly — and wrote a sub- 
scription, and subscribed to it. Shall I tell you 
the amount I subscribed ? Fifteen dollars ; no 
more, no less. It was little; I was poor then — 
poorer than I am now — and did not understand 
the wants of the work as now. I went to a man — 
whose name I could give, and one known all over 
the Church — for his subscription. I wanted him 
to give a good amount; I pleaded that he would 
give at least as much as I had done. He said, 'You 
put your name there to show yourself. ' I began 
to press him some, but I got only ten dollars. I 
went to< another man, and he said he would give 
ten dollars if I would take it in books. I accepted 
— took the books and paid the money. I have 
some of the books yet. Brother Hanby gave me 
twenty-five dollars — grand, good man ! I went to 
Jonathan Dresbach ; he was worth $100,000. He 
gave me fifty dollars. From another I got twenty- 
five dollars and from another fifty dollars, and so 
the work began. ~Naw I had the cream. I must 
start out elsewhere; so I started for Sandusky 
Conference, way on the Maumee. I had a horse 
and overshoes and a good overcoat, and so I started 
on horseback. The first night I stayed with a 
hickory United Brethren. The next day I started 
out in the snow. I had to cross Alum Creek. I 
went along and along and along, and saw no one of 
whom I could inquire. The snow had covered the 
road, so- that there were no tracks. I came to a 
ford ; I could see no one of whom I could inquire 
about it. I started down the bank. The horse 
went in gently for a while, then it plunged and 

29 



History of Otterbein University 

plunged. I climbed up on the horse's back. The 
horse plunged and swam across and I got out, but 
was wet> and soon stopped over night with a 
stranger. Then I went on by Sandusky, and day 
by day through the mud, through the black swamp 
— mud — mud — mud — mud, till I could not tell 
the color of my horse. I got to conference a little 
late k I had heard that the bishop would antago- 
nize the work. Bishop Kussel was then presid- 
ing bishop. He was a strong man — strong in 
intellect, with a mighty brain well stored, and 
strong in prejudices. I met him tremblingly. 'I 
have made up my mind to oppose this/ he said. I 
told him I had come to> represent the work. 'You 
be still, you be still/ was his reply. I told him I 
could not be still, and if they gave me an advisory 
seat I would advocate it. I got a chance, but he 
managed to rule me out of order. I said some- 
thing, but I was always too early or I was too late, 
or something was wrong, so that he ruled me out of 
order. He did oppose it in a characteristic speech 
of half an hour, and then put the question; but 
they voted for the college, but by a small majority. 
It was a victory, but a dear one. I felt that a few 
more such victories would defeat me. 

"Then I went to Muskingum Conference. 
There I met Bishop Bussel again. 'You are here V 
'Yes, I am here.' 'Well, you be still.' I asked 
him to be still. I told him I did not think it his 
business, as a bishop, to oppose this work. He was 
to preside, and let the conference act. I thought I 
understood something of parliamentary custom. 
He replied, 'You be still.' He opposed it in the 

30 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

conference vehemently. He said if this thing 
carried, something awful would happen to the 
Church. He did not point out what it would be, 
but vehemently he asserted something awful would 
happen to the Church. The conference did not 
vote it that year, but they did the next year. 
Bishop Russel was a typical man. He was a 
gentleman — grand, noble, manly, intelligent. He 
was a representative of the Church of that time as 
to the educational work. The fathers of the 
Church were well represented in him. They were 
not opposed to education, but they did not believe 
it the business of the Church to educate. This 
sentiment I met through the entire Church. Other 
churches had the same view largely. They were 
getting rid of it faster than we were. Perhaps 
Otterbein held it ; Newcomer and Geeting held it ; 
I know Asbury held it. This we had to combat. 

"But we began the work. There is the first cata- 
logue. In 1847 we opened the school. We had 
one full teacher and others who helped. I taught 
some. Professor Griffith was our chief teacher. 
We struggled ten years before we could graduate 
any one. We had not the faculty or the require- 
ments to entitle us to confer any degrees. After 
ten years' work we graduated two ladies — one yet 
living and one dead. When I left the college, fif- 
teen years ago, there had been graduated one hun- 
dred and forty-four. 

"I fear I have detained you too long. God bless 
you all. If there is anything of which I am proud 
it is this work. As Cotton Mather said of that 
grand institution, Harvard, 'It is the best thing 

31 



History of Otterbein University 

the fathers of the country thought of.' So I would 
say, The best thing our Church ever thought of is 
the Christian college. God bless it, and bless you 
all." 

This address reveals in a most interesting way 
how humble was the origin of Otterbein Univer- 
sity and the beginning of the educational work in 
the United Brethren Church. But other and 
greater colleges have had humble beginnings. Yale 
College seems to have had at first neither place 
nor name. It had its origin in the year 1700, 
when ten ministers presented some forty books for 
the founding of a college in the colony of Con- 
necticut. The location was not fixed at Xew 
Haven until 1710, and in 1718 Elihu Yale sent 
from London goods to the value of two hundred 
pounds, equal to about nine hundred dollars, and 
the trustees gave his name to a building they were 
then erecting. By degrees the name was applied 
to the institution itself. It was not until 1745 
that the name was given by charter to the corpora- 
tion. 

It provokes a smile to look into the first cata- 
logue of Otterbein University and see that on the 
page assigned to the faculty but a single name 
appears bearing the title of principal ; but Doctor 
Davis informs us that other teachers, whose names 
do not appear, aided in the work. In this respect, 
too, Otterbein University finds its parallel in some 
of its noted predecessors among the colleges of the 
country. When Timothy Dwight became president 
of Yale College, it had already been in operation 
for nearly a century, and yet he had associated 

32 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

with him in the faculty but one professor and 
three tutors. Professor Josiah Meigs occupied the 
chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, but 
there was no professor of Latin, none of Greek, 
none of natural science, and none of rhetoric and 
English literature. So Harvard in 1800, when in 
the last half of her second century, had but one 
professor whose duties w r ere in what we should now 
call the college department. There was no profes- 
sor of Latin or Greek until 1811, or for a period of 
nearly two hundred years. Williams College be- 
gan in 1793 with a president and one tutor. It 
will be seen, therefore, that Otterbein University 
from the very beginning has traveled in the road 
which has conducted some other colleges to re- 
nown. 

The address of Doctor Davis also gives a 
glimpse of the formidable obstacles and difficulties 
which were encountered in the early history of this 
work, and incidentally of the toil, suffering, 
patient endurance, fortitude, and devotion neces- 
sary in order to meet and overcome them. Among 
these early heroes Doctor Davis was easily chief. 
Had not the leadership in this work fallen to a 
man of such imperial will, such undaunted cour- 
age, and such thorough devotion, Otterbein Uni- 
versity would probably have failed as utterly as 
did the Blendon Young Men's Seminary before it. 

In this address he also gives a frank account of 
the naming of the institution, a matter which has 
since led to some unfavorable criticism. Some 
have been disposed to charge that to give to the 
institution the imposing title of "university" dis- 

3 33 



History of Otterbein University 

played exceptional ignorance and pretension. 
Some have been so annoyed by this alleged misfit- 
that they have advocated an appeal to the legisla- 
ture to change the name from university to col- 
lege. Others have proposed to cure the incon- 
gruity, not by changing the name, but by 
advancing the grade of the institution to the uni- 
versity standard. It would seem that these critics 
of the fathers are taking the matter of name too 
seriously. The fact is that the fathers in giving 
the title "university" to the institution were sim- 
ply following the example of persons of the highest 
culture and largest experience in educational 
work. It was largely the fashion of the times, 
however much we may object to the fashion, and 
was well understood, and so was not misleading. 
The following colleges at the time bore the 
title of university: Ohio, at Athens; Miami, at 
Oxford; Denison, at Granville; Ohio Wesleyan, 
at Delaware; Baldwin, at Berea; Western Re- 
serve, at Hudson, and Capital, at Columbus, all in 
Ohio. Our fathers can hardly be justly re- 
proached for following so common a usage of their 
time, and since, and we shall do well not to allow 
it greatly to disturb us. 

Another method of curing the incongruity be- 
tween the name and character of the institution 
sometimes advocated is not by changing the name, 
but by advancing it to the university grade. The 
Church, they contend, should have at least one 
university, consisting of the schools of theology, 
law, medicine, and the liberal arts, and equipped 
to do original and research work, and Otterbein 

34 



Conferences Cooperating in Education 

University as the first college of the Church and 
because of its central location, is the one best 
suited for such advancement. Many, however, 
doubt the propriety of the Church taking upon 
itself the responsibility and burdens of the pro- 
fessional schools of law and medicine, and there is 
quite general agreement that until the Church can 
be induced to furnish the means adequately to 
equip and furnish the college, which is necessary 
for the efficiency and success of the Church in her 
work, the idea of maintaining an institution of 
university grade, which is not thus necessary, may 
well be held in abeyance. 



35 



History of Otterbein University 



CHAPTEK III. 

Rev. Lewis Davis — His Early Life and Education — As 
Agent of Otterbein University. 

The reader will be glad to know more of one so 
honorably and prominently associated with the 
founding of Otterbein University and the begin- 
ning of the work of higher education in the Church 
of the United Brethren in Christ as is Rev. Lewis 
Davis. As has already been stated, he has, by very 
general consent, been accorded the distinction of 
being the father of the educational work of the 
Church. 

Lewis Davis was born on a small farm in Craig 
(then part of Botetourt) County, Virginia, Feb- 
ruary 14, 1814. By his father he was of Welsh, 
and his mother of Scotch descent. The family 
was poor, and the subject of this sketch was inured 
to the hardships and privations of a country lad 
in a home of narrow means. His father, while 
above the average of the community in which he 
lived in character and intelligence, seemed to have 
little ambition to improve his station in life. Fond 
of the violin, fast horses, and the hunt, he seemed 
content with only the barest subsistence. He was 
one of those easy-going souls, whose love of amuse- 
ment prompted him often to drop the tasks of the 
farm for the more relished social gatherings, where 
his genial disposition and skill on the violin ren- 
dered him a popular and ever-welcome attendant. 

36 



First Agent Appointed 

This disposition of the father to neglect the duties 
of the farm, all the more made hard work on the 
part of the children a necessity, and even then, but 
for the aid occasionally given by an uncle of the 
mother, there would have been suffering for the 
necessaries of life. 

Thus compelled to labor in order to keep the 
wolf from the door of the family, even had there 
been good schools in the neighborhood, the boy 
could scarcely have been spared from home to at- 
tend them. But there were no good schools in the 
community in those days, and so 1 the boy reached 
the age of eighteen with the merest rudiments of 
an education. At this age it seemed most improb- 
able that young Davis would ever be the founder of 
a college, and the father of the educational work in 
a vigorous and growing church; but, looking 
backward, we can now see that at about this time 
the forces, under a guiding Providence, began to 
play which led to this honorable distinction. 

The necessity of self-support set young Davis to 
thinking about learning a trade as a means to this 
end. Some blacksmiths boarding in the family at 
this time naturally directed his attention to this 
trade, and he went to New Castle, the nearest 
town, and began work with an edge-tool manufac- 
turer by the name of Jacob Hammond. This 
proved a happy turning-point in the life of young 
Davis. He went to learn the trade of a blacksmith, 
and he learned it, but his residence and service 
with Mr. Hammond served a far higher purpose. 
Mr. Hammond was an intelligent, kind, Christian 
gentleman, in good circumstances, who brought the 

37 



History of Otterbein University 

best of home influences to bear upon his young ap- 
prentice. He was quick to discover the native tal- 
ents of young Davis, and began to furnish him good 
books to read, and to encourage him to study. He 
inspired him with larger views of life than he had 
ever known before. As a Christian home, the res- 
idence of Mr. Hammond was a frequent stopping- 
place for the early pioneer ministers of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church who labored in that 
portion of Virginia, and young Davis attracted 
their attention and excited their interest. It was 
while living with this family that he was led to 
profess faith in Christ and begin the Christian 
life. It was while living in this family, also, that 
he experienced what he ever after characterized as 
his "intellectual awakening." The writer has 
heard him speak of it with thrilling effect in ad- 
dressing the students of Otterbein University. 
Among the ministers who frequented the home of 
Mr. Hammond was one by the name of Jeremiah 
Cullum, who became especially interested in Mr. 
Davis, and prophesied a large field of usefulness 
for him in the future. He endeavored to induce 
him to attend school and devote himself to study 
to qualify himself for the work he felt sure Provi- 
dence had in store for him. On the occasion of 
one of Mr. Cullum' s visits to the home of Mr. 
Hammond, he inquired for "Lute," and on being 
informed that he had retired for the night, Mr. 
Cullum went to his chamber and, kneeling by his 
bed, began to talk in a most earnest and sympa- 
thetic way of what he believed to be the call of 
God to young Davis to go to school and equip him- 

38 



First Agent Appointed 

self for a great work, at last breaking forth in an 
impassioned prayer which so profoundly stirred 
the youth lying upon his bed that he solemnly re- 
solved then and there to consecrate his life and de- 
vote himself to study as a preparation for anything 
that God had for him to do. The obstacles in the 
way of preparation by going to school seemed to be 
great, but, wrought up as he was, he resolved to 
overcome all. His mother, a gentle, loving woman 
of warm heart and pure Christian life, sympa- 
thized deeply with the new and lofty aspirations 
which had been excited in the heart of her boy, and, 
to aid him in going to school, she proposed to give 
him $50 she could illy spare, recently received 
from the uncle to whom reference has before been 
made. 

Thus encouraged, he entered an academy in 
!New Castle, and by very close economy he was en- 
abled to continue his studies for eighteen months, 
during which time he applied himself very closely, 
and made rapid progress. At this time he became 
a member of a debating club which was of great 
educational value to him and laid the foundation 
for that skill and power in debate which he after- 
wards displayed, and which rendered him such a 
formidable champion of any cause he espoused. 

After leaving the academy he drifted for sev- 
eral years without any very definite purpose, 
traveling through the country and stopping to work 
at his trade when funds would become exhausted. 
Keeping his eyes and ears open he learned the 
ways of the world. Travel widened his conceptions 
of life and increased his knowledge of men. About 

39 



History of Otterbein University 

this time, when lie had reached the age of twenty- 
three, some young men of his section of the 
country proposed to come West, as it was called, 
and he joined them. There were three in the 
company and they came by way of the Big Coal 
River and spent some time at the Kanawha salt 
works in western Virginia. Not being pleased 
with the country he determined to return to his 
home. On the way he tarried for a night with a 
gentleman by the name of Hurless, who had known 
the parents of Mr. Davis. Mr. Hurless became in- 
terested in Mr. Davis, and determined if pos- 
sible to detain him. He asked Mr. Davis whether 
he could teach school and on receiving an affirm- 
ative answer he sought and obtained the school of 
his district for him for a term of three months. 
Mr. Davis taught the school with such faithfulness 
and success as to secure him an engagement for 
six months more. Meanwhile he had his home 
with Mr. Hurless. Here is found another link in 
the chain which drew Mr. Davis to the sphere of 
his chief life work. Mr. Hurless was a member of 
the United Brethren Church, a church of which 
Mr. Davis, up to this time, had known little or 
nothing. Now he began to worship with them and 
also taught a class in the Sabbath school. During 
this time Rev. W. W. Davis, of the Scioto Confer- 
ence, father of Revs. W. J. and A. E. Davis, for- 
merly of the Central Ohio Conference, visited this 
section as a home missionary, became interested 
in the young teacher and, anxious to induce 
him to join the United Brethren Church, gave him 
a copy of the Church Discipline to examine. Mr. 

40 



First Agent Appointed 

Davis, although converted under the labors of the 
Methodist Church, had never united with that 
church because of its attitude toward slavery and 
secret societies, to both of which Mr. Davis was 
radically opposed. The government of the United 
Brethren Church, as set forth in the Discipline, 
greatly pleased Mr. Davis and he promptly united 
with the Church. This was in 1837. In 1838 he 
was licensed to preach, and in 1839 he joined the 
Scioto Conference at Pleasant Run, Ohio. Thus 
he became a member of the conference which eight 
years later, and largely through his influence and 
labors, was destined to lead the way in the work 
of higher education in the Church by founding 
Otterbein University. 

For eight years he served as an itinerant 
minister, his thirst for knowledge constantly 
intensifying. He applied himself to study as 
closely as the life of an active itinerant, trav- 
eling over a large territory, would allow. He 
bought such books as his limited means would per- 
mit As soon as mastered, from motives of econ- 
omy, he would exchange them for others, which in 
time he would master. It was at this time that 
Mr. Davis became one of a trio of young men, all 
destined to reach the highest positions of honor 
and usefulness in the gift of the Church, strik- 
ingly different in their personal characteristics, 
and as strikingly alike in the toils and hardships 
to which they were exposed, and the absence of 
educational advantages from which they suffered, 
in early life. This trio consisted of Lewis Davis, 
William Hanby, and David Edwards, These 

41 



History of Otterbein University 

drifted by kindred aspirations into closest fellow- 
ship and friendship and became very helpful to 
each other, in the hard school of self-development 
and self -culture. Each had much to do with the 
others' success and destiny. Mr. Davis seemed to 
grasp the educational problem in relation to the 
Church with a little more clearness and power than 
either Mr. Hanby or Mr. Edwards, and so the 
position of leadership fell to him without rivalry 
or jealousy. 

When proposals came to the Scioto Conference 
to sell to the conference the Blendon Young Men's 
Seminary in October, 1846, Mr. Davis, along with 
D. Edwards and J. Montgomery, were appointed 
a committee to examine into the merits of the 
proposition and report back to the conference. 
The committee reported to the conference, recom- 
mending the purchase upon the terms proposed. 
The report was adopted and Mr. Davis, W. Hanby, 
and Jonathan Dresbach were appointed a commit- 
tee to consummate the purchase, and the same per- 
sons were elected trustees to take charge of the 
property when purchased. This board of trustees 
held its first session near Circleville on the fifth 
of December, 1846. Meanwhile the purchasing 
committee, consisting of the same persons, had 
visited Westerville, examined the property, and, 
upon concluding that it was a good bargain, de- 
cided to purchase. The board of trustees, after 
organizing by electing Jonathan Dresbach presi- 
dent and W. Hanby secretary, decided that the 
first thing to be done was to appoint an agent to 
solicit funds to pay for the seminary purchased, 

42 



First Agent Appointed 

and also to visit the Sandusky and Muskingum 
conferences to solicit their cooperation in building 
up a college. A scholarship plan was also devised 
and the agent authorized to sell one-hundred-dollar 
scholarships entitling the holders to four years' in- 
struction in the college. So far as appears, this 
scholarship plan was allowed to default entirely, 
no scholarships upon this plan having been offered 
or sold. The board selected L. Davis as agent and 
he entered immediately upon the discharge of his 
duties by soliciting funds. As this is the begin- 
ning of the work in connection with Otterbein 
University which, during the first sixty years has 
proven the most difficult and perplexing, it will 
be interesting to indicate how this work began, 
by recording a few of the earliest of Mr. Davis' 
reports as agent. His first report appears in the 
Religious Telescope, then published at Circleville, 
Ohio, December 30, 1846, and is as follows : 

BLENDON" SEMINAKY FUND. 

"The following are free donations made on the 
Circleville station for the Blendon Institute, I 
think all will admit that this station has done very 
well in this important enterprise, and should I 
succeed as well (in proportion to wealth) in the 
other fields of labor I intend to visit, I think we 
shall be able by our next annual conference to 
present an encouraging report. I feel, dear breth- 
ren, that I am engaged in the cause of Christ, If 
I did not I should at once desist, When we re- 
member that we as a people are laboring, not to 
build an institution to manufacture ministers (let 

43 



History of Otterbein University 

this be the work of God) but to train the juvenile 
mind to think, to teach the youth how to act so as 
to be useful in time and ready for eternity; I 
say when we think of the great blessings we may 
thus confer upon our race, I feel willing to endure 
all the opposition I may meet with. But, thank 
the Lord, I do not meet with as much opposition 
as I expected. Should the two conferences join 
us, I think we have nothing to fear. Our motto is, 
We WILL by the grace of God succeed. Dear 
brethren in the ministry and all others, give us 
your influence, the use of your pens and tongues, 
and your money. Here is the report : 

L. Davis $ 15 00 

D. Edwards 10 00 

N. Altman 10 00 

Jos. M. Spangler 10 00 

C. A. King 10 00 

Aquilla Justice 5 00 

David Leist 5 00 

Public collections 17 00 

Various persons 20 00 

Total $102 00 

"L. Davis." 

This is indeed a small beginning as the reader 
will see, but it is greater than the original gift 
which led to the foundation of Yale College. This 
great college had its start in ten ministers giving 
not a sum of money but a collection of forty books 
for the founding of a college. Mr. Davis was 
wont to say of his pledge of fifteen dollars, "It 
was small, but it was the first/' The same may be 
said of the report as a whole. The fact that since 

44 



First Agent Appointed 

this feeble beginning over three hundred thousand 
dollars have been added, is another illustration of 
the adage that "great oaks from little acorns 
grow," though the latter sum is only relatively 
great. 

The next report of Mr. Davis as agent appears 
January 20, 1847, and is as follows: 

"SEMINARY FUND SECOND REPORT. 

"I wish to report through the Telescope to the 
friends of Blendon Institute our success on Pick- 
away circuit. I cannot say what success all the 
friends of this institution have expected me to 
meet with in this laudable enterprise, but this 
much I may or can say, I have succeeded far be- 
yond what I expected, and would say as in first 
report, no serious opposition exists or can exist to 
this enterprise. I think the day is passing away 
when it will be a subject of controversy whether a 
sanctified literature will bless or curse the Church. 
I labor in this with all that seriousness and relig- 
ious conscientiousness and trust in God that I do 
in preaching: for this plain reason it is as much 
the work of God. 

Report. 

Jonathan Dresbach $ 50 00 

Martin Dresbach 25 00 

Thomas McGrady 25 00 

Ephraim Dresbach 25 00 

John P. Morris 10 00 

Henry Morris 10 00 

Wm. Dresbach 10 00 

Isaac Book waiter 10 00 

Henry Dresbach 10 00 

45 



History of Otterbein University 

Daniel Morgan 5 00 

M. Ambrose 5 00 

Wm. Bitten 5 00 

Isaac Dresbach 5 00 

Caroline Bookwalter 5 00 

Mother Bookwalter 5 00 

S. D. Bookwalter 5 00 

M. Metzter 5 00 

Jacob Dresbach 5 00 

Andrew Pontius 5 00 

Isaac Larrick 5 00 

Pleasant Brock 5 00 

Various persons 60 50 

Total $300 50 

"The above with the first report will make col- 
lected and subscribed in all, $402.50 in a little 
more than one month's time. The reason why 
we do not report the sums under five dollars is not 
that we disdain small sums or those who subscribe 
them, but because I suppose it would occupy too 
much space in the paper. L. Davis." 

These reports are sufficient to show the small but 
hopeful way in which the financial support of the 
educational work of the Church began. They are 
interesting, too, for the historic names they contain 
which are thus honorably associated with the be- 
ginning of this important work. Some of these 
family names — as notably the Bookwalters — are 
still prominent in the councils and work of the 
Church. Other reports follow, and on April, 1847, 
Mr. Davis reported that he had secured a little 
over one thousand dollars. Meanwhile the Alle- 
gheny Conference, in Pennsylvania, became en- 
listed in the work of founding a college in its 

46 



First Agent Appointed 

bounds, and in May, 1847, J. Hitter, the agent of 
the Eastern enterprise, quite overshadowed these 
reports of Mr. Davis by reporting that he had se- 
cured $2,860 in pledges, and we see here the be- 
ginning of that inveterate tendency to unduly mul- 
tiply institutions of learning which has been so 
costly, so injurious to the cause of education in 
the Church, but a tendency which has not yet been 
altogether overcome. Suffice it to say now, that 
this Eastern enterprise, known as Mt. Pleasant 
College and located at Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylva- 
nia, after a feeble, struggling life of ten years, be- 
came hopelessly involved in debt and in 1857 all 
its interests were transferred to Otterbein Uni- 
versity and the Allegheny Conference entered into 
cooperation with the college at Westerville. 

At the meeting of the board of trustees which 
met in its first regular session in Westerville, 
April 26, 1847, of which board Mr. Davis was 
elected president, the buildings were ordered put 
in good repair and it was decided to open the doors 
of the college for the reception of students on the 
first of September following. Mr. Davis, as agent, 
had general charge in connection with the solici- 
tation of funds, of the repair work needed, and it 
is fair to say that at this early day, and for many 
years thereafter, the care of the college came upon 
him as upon no one else. His courage, persever- 
ance, and business tact were of incalculable value 
to the new enterprise. When the first of Septem- 
ber arrived, matters were in a fair state of readi- 
ness and the doors of the institution were thrown 
open and its work began in a very humble and 

47 



History of Otterbein University 

elementary way it is true, but destined to grow and 
become one of the mighty factors in determining 
the growth and destiny of the Church. For three 
years Mr. Davis served as a kind of general-pur- 
pose man, ready to do anything that seemed nec- 
essary to maintain and firmly establish the col- 
lege. At the end of this period, while very much 
remained to be done, the foundations may be said 
to have been securely laid and Mr. Davis had 
borne so important and conspicuous a part in this 
work as to forever link his name with the institu- 
tion as its founder. Of his eminent service during 
the eighteen years that he served as president of 
the college there will be occasion to speak in sub- 
sequent chapters. 



48 



Agitation and Debate 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Educational Question — Agitation and Debate — Circular 
to the Church. 

Some account has already been given of the 
rise of sentiment in favor of higher education in 
the Church and of the measures and plans which 
resulted in the founding of Otterbein University. 
It will be well perhaps to consider a little more 
closely the clash of ideas which occurred in con- 
nection with this movement in the Church. Doubt- 
less it would have been most welcome to the early 
champions of education in the Church if their 
efforts and plans had not been opposed, but it is 
by no means clear that it would have been better, 
or even as well, if all had promptly acquiesced and 
none had opposed the efforts of the pioneers in 
this cause. It is after all the contested positions 
of which we gain clearest knowledge and firmest 
hold. With what overwhelming force the great 
Apostle of the Gentiles, while exposing the errors 
of the Judaizing teachers, sets forth the great doc- 
trine of salvation by faith. What a splendid body 
of apologetic literature the opponents of Christi- 
anity have proved. It is very pleasant to sail on 
calm seas, but it is the storm that gives the knowl- 
edge and command of the sea which makes the 
sailor. Considering the Church sixty years ago, 
as we have depicted it, it was inevitable that the 
beginning of the work of higher education in the 

4 49 



History of Otterbein University 

Church should produce a commotion and arouse 
antagonistic forces. It is well that in this case 
the opposition, with perhaps the rarest exceptions, 
came from persons who were thoroughly honest 
and sincere, who were prompted to take their po- 
sition because of misapprehension and lack of in- 
formation. With such people all that is necessary 
to be done is to correct misapprehension and im- 
part information; but this could hardly be done 
without a season of agitation and debate, such as 
occurred in the Church in the decade from 1840 
to 1850, and which agitation and debate were at 
their height during the latter half of this decade. 
While the advocates of a college for the Church 
were thinking almost exclusively of the youth 
whom they hoped to gather within its halls, and 
of the benefits and blessings which should, in the 
future, come to the Church and the world through 
the labors of these cultured youths, they were un- 
consciously performing a most beneficent service 
by the great uplift they were giving through this 
campaign of education to the multiplied thou- 
sands of ministers and laymen who were never 
destined to see the inside of a college. 

After Rev. L. Davis, the most active, capable, 
and useful pioneer of the educational work in the 
Church was Rev. Wm. Hanby. Being six years 
the senior of Mr. Davis, both in years and in the 
ministry of the United Brethren Church, he en- 
tered the conflict earlier than Mr. Davis. Joining 
the Scioto Conference in 1833, he advanced rap- 
idly from circuit preacher to presiding elder in 
1836, to general agent and treasurer of the Tele- 

50 



Agitation and Debate 

scope office in 1837, to editor of the Religious 
Telescope in 1839, and to bishop in 1845. These 
positions gave Mr. Hanby great opportunity to 
serve the Church as the friend and champion of 
higher education, an opportunity which he consci- 
entiously and faithfully improved on his election 
to the bishop's office by the General Conference of 
1845, the same conference which, as already stated, 
took the first action in the subject of founding a 
college. On retiring from the editorship of the 
Religious Telescope, a position which he had occu- 
pied for six years, in his valedictory he used the 
following language on the subject of higher edu- 
cation : 

"Whatsoever, therefore, our hands find to do, we 
should do it with our might, and now that we as 
a Church should know where to begin, we should 
determine where we are most deficient; and may 
we not ask, What have we done to promote in- 
telligence and correct morals and deep piety ? As to 
intelligence, are we not deficient? A great want 
of love of reading and information generally is 
very apparent. Our people are an industrious 
and wealthy people, but by no means, with a few 
noble exceptions, a learned or even a reading peo- 
ple. God has declared that his gospel shall be 
preached in all the world, among all nations, but 
alas ! is our Church prepared to send missionaries 
among all nations % If the most effectual doors 
were opened to us, could we enter the field ? ~No, 
we are not qualified. We have the means of use- 
fulness but lack the energy. We lack a deep sac- 
rificing spirit. We cling to our ideas, unwilling 

51 



History of Otterbein University 

to suffer the loss of all things. No great reforma- 
tion in the Church since the crucifixion has ever 
been achieved without profound learning and re- 
ligion combined. God has given powers of mind 
capable of great improvement, and we are com- 
manded to occupy. The best and most pious, the 
greatest reformers that ever lived were learned 
men. Indeed, without this they could not have 
been great reformers. As well think about a great 
schoolmaster who did not know his letters. 

"It is often asserted that learning makes a man 
proud and haughty, but it had not that effect on 
Paul. He appears to have been quite as humble 
as any of the apostles. There are many pious and 
useful ministers that are unlearned, but their in- 
fluence does not extend beyond their immediate 
walks. Learning is the handmaid of religion and 
should be cared for by all. 

"Now I shall ask the friends of education to re- 
solve upon renewed efforts in this great work. Use 
every means calculated to promote this object, Let 
us never rest until we have within our own Church, 
schools of moral and literary training. The in- 
terests of the Church imperiously demand it, 
Our brethren want some place, under the care of 
the Church, of pious resort, where their children 
may get an intellectual and religious training, 
where they may be reared for the Lord; where 
the progress of learning with them may be truly 
sanctified. The promiscuous schools of the land 
fail to accomplish this. This work is left to the 
church, under God, to perform. We have recently 
been informed that in one seminary of another 

52 



Agitation and Debate 

church, there are fourteen United Brethren chil- 
dren in attendance. Now, why not educate our 
own children ourselves ? Do other churches better 
understand the genius of our government and doc- 
trines than we ? No marvel indeed if children thus 
educated should leave the church of their fathers 
and unite with the one that prepared them for 
usefulness. Indeed, upon this very subject we 
hardly deserve to be ranked among the sisterhood 
of churches. We have been recreant to this very 
hour; to our shame be it spoken. Be it known 
that upon this subject, God granting life and 
health, we shall never cease talking and impor- 
tuning with God and man until our Church is fur- 
nished with the facilities of a fair education, that 
our young brethren and sisters may obtain that 
training at home that they are now seeking else- 
where." 

To enable the reader to understand the temper 
and character of the discussion as it was carried 
on in the Church sixty years ago and more, a 
fairly representative communication is given on 
each side of the controversy. Against the found- 
ing of a college the following communication ap- 
peared in the Religious Telescope of March 24, 
1847, over the signature "J." 

SEMINARIES. 

"I also will show mine opinion." Job 32 : 10. 

"Since much is said in the Religious Telescope 
of seminaries, I also will show mine opinion con- 
cerning them. We all agree that much learning 
will not make people pious. This could be shown 

53 



History of Otterbein University 

by numerous examples. For instance, look at the 
fields of battle. Who calls the thousands together 
to kill and be killed ? The answer will be plain. 
Hence, we see that learning will not preserve peace, 
'Strictures in Education, ~No. 5, ? to the contrary, 
notwithstanding. 

"We have the common schools, as Brother Pef- 
fley said, to educate our children. The education 
we can get in them is fully sufficient if we are only 
well versed in the school of Christ. God forbid 
that I should oppose education, but when I take a 
view of those societies that have institutions of 
learning I am at a loss to see much pious good 
springing therefrom ; and it seems to me that the 
writers in the Religious Telescope so far have 
failed to show what great good has been wrought 
in the societies that have them. 

"The Church is not yet a hundred years old 
and is said to number a hundred thousand mem- 
bers, secured without seminaries. How much 
more have those with them done? And for deep 
piety and a holy life, I think we need not be afraid 
to compare with any of those that have colleges. 
And why just now 'suffer an irreparable loss if 
we do not forthwith carry forward some project 
for the education of the rising generation/ as a 
'Local Preacher' thinks. The Brethren Church so 
far has done well without seminaries, and my opin- 
ion is that if she establishes them they will land 
the Church where Father Otterbein started from 
when he commenced it. 

"Brother H.'s [Hanby's] expression about the 
seminaries, yet fails to produce much gospel proof, 

54 



Agitation and Debate 

nor yet any great results from the past, but admits 
that 'evil influences are manifest among many of 
our high schools and colleges/ perhaps in most of 
them ; and who will guarantee that no evil influ- 
ences be manifest in this ? And who will warrant 
us that a collegiate training will not be the test 
for entering conference ? Experience is the best 
school. 

"Brother H.'s [Hanby's] expression about the 
scientific farmer, in my opinion, is rather a wild 
one. Farming requires labor. With all the sci- 
ence in the world you could not raise wheat with- 
out tilling the ground. 

"My opinion is that the money given to semi- 
naries would be by far better spent if it were 
applied to our common schools and to paying our 
traveling preachers and missionaries and to build- 
ing meeting-houses. 

"And, finally, my opinion is that a majority of 
the Church [United Brethren in Christ] are op- 
posed to establishing seminaries of learning, and 
that the opposition is founded on the gospel and 
the experience of the past. Space admonishes me 
to stop for the present. 

"Yours respectfully, 

"J*." 

To this communication L. Davis, in the same 
number of the Telescope, made the following re- 
ply: 

"Mr. Editor: 

"Being at the office at the time the above came 
to hand, by your permission I will present to your 

55 



History of Otterbein University 

readers a few thoughts upon the same subject by 
way of contrast ; and if flaw or weakness be found 
in either article, the vigorous analysis to which all 
given principles are subjected when presented to 
an enlightened people, will expose my arguments, 
as I consider the above as weak and futile. 

"The grand question is this, Do seminaries and 
high schools of learning benefit mankind? I take 
the affirmative of this question. I commence my 
thread of arguments by stating the obvious fact 
that the cultivation of the fine arts and the sciences 
are invariably and inseparably connected with the 
Christian religion. Any man acquainted in the 
least degree with ancient, modern, profane, or 
sacred history must know that when the Christian 
religion is received in its true spirit in heathen 
lands, the rude customs of savage life give place 
to the refinements of art and mind. Then with 
propriety and great beauty education has been 
called (not religion itself) but a twin sister of the 
Christian religion. . . . Every useful discov- 
ery in the world of art and mind has contributed 
to the elevation of divine revelation. 

"But says the objector, 'I am not opposed to ed- 
ucation, but I am opposed to these seminaries.' 
Well, now, think a little. Should I say that he is 
not opposed to religion, (oh, no, God forbid,) and 
at the same time say that he is opposed to prayer, 
class, and love-feast meetings, and all the means 
by which religion is promoted, what would you 
think ? To oppose the means by which a thing is 
promoted is the same thing to me as to oppose the 
thing itself. 

5G 



Agitation and Debate 

"My second argument is drawn from universal 
experience. One of the strong arguments in favor 
of the Christian religion is predicated upon the 
experience of those who have tested its power upon 
their own hearts. If any principle can be proven 
from the universal experience of mankind, it 
amounts to a demonstration. We apply this kind 
of argument to the subject under consideration. 
All men of every country, in every age, and of 
every grade of society that have tested experi- 
mentally the utility of these schools, without a 
single exception, testify that they are a blessing 
to mankind. I do not claim for all arguments 
the strength of a demonstration, but for this I do. 
What is the testimony of all those great and good 
men who were not only benefactors to the age in 
which they lived but to> generations unborn ? I do 
not wish the argument to be so understood as to 
mean that all who oppose the founding of schools 
are necessarily ignorant, but I wish all to remem- 
ber the fact that all those who oppose have never 
tested the advantage of these schools in storing 
their minds with useful knowledge. 

"My third argument is predicated upon God's 
plan of giving the word of life to man. Christ 
gave the gift of tongues to his ancient ministers in 
order to spread his light, life, and truth to all peo- 
ple under heaven, and it is a remarkable fact in 
the history of the church that since the days of 
miracles the Lord Jesus has blessed these schools 
to the furtherance of his word ; and in fact we 
cannot see how any man can devise a reasonable 
plan to send the gospel to that part of the popu- 

57 



History of Otterbein University 

lation of the globe now destitute of the bread of 
life, except by founding appropriate schools where 
the different languages of the earth may be taught, 
and men of God may learn the original languages, 
so as to be able to translate the Scriptures into the 
native tongues of heathen nations. Do any ask 
what benefit will the Blendon Seminary confer? 
I ask what benefit is it to you to live in the midst 
of an enlightened community, even if you knew 
not a letter in the book ? and what benefit is it to 
the great body of the people to have the Scriptures 
in their own native tongue ? When these questions 
are answered satisfactorily, I can then tell what 
advantage these schools are to the common people. 
Luther gave the Scriptures to the Germans, and, as 
with the hand of violence, tore God's revealed 
truth from the vaults of darkness and seclusion to 
which the superstition of the Catholic clergy had 
consigned it. It had been taken from the people 
and put there by the hand of violence and blood- 
shed; and God determined to rescue it by the 
hand of Luther, who was not only a good, but a 
learned man. When Luther gave the Scriptures 
to the common people in their native tongue, refor- 
mation like a sheet of lightning flashed up in a 
dark place and spread over all the Christian world. 

"In love, 

"L. Davis." 

At the first regular meeting of the board of trus- 
tees, which met in Westerville, April 26, 1847, 
with representatives from the Scioto and San- 
dusky conferences, a committee consisting of 

58 



Agitation and Debate 

Eevs. Wm. Hanby and L. Davis was appointed to 
prepare a circular for the information of the 
Church, setting forth the purposes and plans of 
the projectors of the college, for publication in the 
Religious Telescope. As an official statement of 
the motives and purposes of those who had this 
educational enterprise in charge it possesses his- 
toric value and it is here inserted. 

a circular to the church in general. 
"Dear Brethren: 

"We, the undersigned, with feelings of respect 
and Christian fellowship, wish to set before you 
and the public generally the motives by which we 
are actuated in founding a literary institution un- 
der the control and patronage of the Church of our 
choice. A due respect to ourselves and especially 
to the peace and harmony of the Church seem to 
demand this at our hands. 

"Some of the correspondents of the Telescope 
represent us as establishing an institution of learn- 
ing chiefly to qualify young men for the ministry, 
and impose upon it, we think unwarrantedly, the 
name of priest factory. Without admitting by any 
means that the acquired abilities of our ministry 
are beyond or even up to what the important sta- 
tion demands, yet against this comment upon our 
motives we now enter the most solemn protest; 
and we think it unkind in any of our brethren 
thus to represent us, because we have from the 
beginning disavowed, in public and in private, 
any intention of the kind. Our great object is the 
general diffusion of knowledge, especially in the 
Church to which we belong. Some accuse of de- 



History of Otterbein University 

parting from the original landmarks and usages 
of the Church. This may be true or untrue. It 
depends upon the sense in which the accusation is 
understood. If it is to mean that we of the Scioto 
and other annual conferences have undertaken an 
enterprise unknown in this distinctive branch of 
the Church before, it is true; but if it is under- 
stood to mean that we are departing from the gen- 
ius of our Discipline, or from the known senti- 
ments of our f atherS) who under God founded the 
Church, it is untrue. We not only do not find any 
legal impediment in the Discipline to the enter- 
prise, but we find ourselves pursuing the very plan 
marked out by the supreme authorities of the 
Church, and as it respects the opinions of the 
fathers of the Church, we do not consider them of 
supreme authority in deciding a question of this 
kind; but whatever weight they may have upon 
the minds of our people, let it be remembered that 
we have all upon our side. Now we ask in the 
name of reason, who> ever heard our fathers speak 
against high schools as such ? But they considered 
it an evil of great magnitude to educate men in 
these schools for the ministry and send them out 
to preach without religion. So say we with all our 
hearts. If God should call a man from the plow, 
let him go; if from the mechanic's shop, let him 
go; if from any of the high schools of the land, 
let him likewise go, and go immediately. This 
sentiment, we think, our venerated fathers held no 
more sacred than we do. Some ask with apparent 
triumph, Who will vouch that the Otterbein Uni- 
versity will not at some future day, when it passes 

GO 



Agitation and Debate 

into the hands of other men, become a 'priest 
factory' ? We answer : This asks more at our 
hands than is demanded in any other case what- 
ever. Should you urge a sinner to embrace Christ 
in the forgiveness of his sins, and should he de- 
mand of you to vouch that in case he should thus 
embrace Christ that he would never disgrace his 
profession, would you not think his demand un- 
reasonable? Does such an evasion destroy the 
propriety of a sinner's reformation, or does the 
abuse of education destroy forever the utility of 
education received through a systematic course of 
study ? 

a All any reasonable man can ask is, that we 
try by the grace of God to preserve the institution 
from such apostasy. Let it never be forgotten that 
such is the wonderful structure of the mind that 
it will be educated. We must not think that 
enough opposition can be raised to stop the march 
of mind now in progress in this great American 
family. Indeed, he who thus opposes occupies a 
position regretted by the wise and good — a posi- 
tion unfavorable to the best interests of his country 
and the cause of God. 

"The question is not, Shall the youth be edu- 
cated % but, What kind of an education shall he 
have ? Is the sentiment true so often repeated by 
the philosopher, statesman, and divine, in all civ- 
ilized nations, that the hope of the country and 
the ultimate triumph of Christianity depend upon 
the proper education of the youth ? If it is, we 
ask the one hundred thousand communicants of 
our Church, Are we not members of this vast re- 

61 



History of Otterbein University 

public ? Are we not responsible to God for the in- 
fluence we exert in this cause ? 

"It is thought by many of the wise and good that 
we are standing on the eve of some great revolu- 
tion, which seems evident when we lift our eyes 
from beholding local objects and look at the agi- 
tated state of nations and empires. Now man 
contends with man — mind meets mind. Infidel- 
ity, Catholicism, and errorists of every grade have 
their schools, and shall we not gird for the con- 
flict ? Yes. Let> all the Church say, Amen. Could 
we feel upon this subject as we should, we would 
soon awake one and all from our slumber and feel 
the importance of establishing an institution of 
learning in the Church, to be controlled by the 
sanctifying influence of the Christian religion. 

"In conclusion, we wish to say to the Miami, 
Muskingum, and other annual conferences, should 
you at some future day agree to cooperate with the 
Scioto and the Sandusky conferences in promoting 
the interests of the Otterbein University, you can 
have the opportunity. The institution may at 
some day not very remote, have connected with it 
the 'Manual Labor System.' This will depend, 
however, upon our success in raising funds. Suit- 
able land can be had adjoining the institution. 

"We have very briefly and candidly given our 
views in behalf of the board of trustees whom we 
represent, cherishing at the same time, unabated 
esteem toward our good brethren from whose views 
we honestly dissent. We award to them cheerfully 
the enjoyment of their own sentiments and the full 
and candid expression of their own opinions. And 

62 



Agitation and Debate 

now all we ask is to be treated with Christian 
courtesy and not have put upon us positions that 
we have never taken; and further, either to con- 
vince us of wrong, from the Bible or Discipline, or 
allow us peaceably and kindly to do what we are 
perfectly willing that they may not do. 

"With the kindest feelings and no other object 
than the glory of God and the good of mankind in 
view, we subscribe ourselves the humble servants 
of the Church. 

"Wm. Hanby, 
"Lewis Davis. 

"Circleville, Ohio, May 4, 1847." 

The agitation and debate of which the general 
drift and character is indicated above, continued 
quite active for several years, and the controversial 
literature pro and con became quite voluminous. 
"Not infrequently in the same issue of the Religious 
Telescope appeared announcements of the prog- 
ress of the educational work as represented in Ot- 
terbein University, and communications earnestly 
arguing the impolicy and danger of the work. In 
this there is found a fine illustration of the spirit 
of fair play and free discussion which has so gen- 
erally characterized the Church. The communi- 
cations of those who opposed the founding of a 
college indicated that they feared that the college 
would introduce into the ministry of the Church 
persons educated but destitute of spiritual life and 
experience, and that the Church would decline in 
spiritual power. The conception of the opposition 
seemed to be that uneducated persons could not 

63 



History of Otterbein University 

preach without conversion and a true spiritual 
life, but that educated persons could. In support 
of their contentions they alleged that Otterbein 
and his colaborers as well as Wesley and his co- 
laborers, when they began their reformatory labors, 
found the churches largely with educated but un- 
converted ministers in their pulpits and with many 
of their cultured members destitute of practical 
piety. Hence they concluded that education and 
the colleges were responsible for the low spiritual 
life which, it is now generally conceded, prevailed 
in the churches when Otterbein began his labors 
among the Germans and Wesley among the Eng- 
lish. The most formidable opposition which these 
flaming evangelists encountered came from min- 
isters and laymen who have been trained in the 
colleges, and as a consequence many of the fol- 
lowers both of Otterbein and Wesley distrusted 
and feared education and the colleges as hostile 
to the purity and spirituality of the church. As 
the debate however proceeded it was made plain 
that education and the colleges were not responsi- 
ble for the deplorable spiritual condition of the 
churches, and the sentiment in the United Breth- 
ren Church began rapidly to change from compar- 
ative indifference to interest, and from opposition 
to support, and the triumph of education and the 
college in the Church, which has since occurred, 
was clearly foreshadowed. 

As a kind of last resort, under the leadership of 
Bishop John Russel, who was perhaps the ablest 
and most influential opponent of the project of 
founding a college, the contention was raised that 

64 



Agitation and Debate 

the General Conference of 1845, in authorizing 
the work and referring it to the annual confer- 
ences, did not reflect the sentiment of the body of 
the Church and the demand was made, in the al- 
leged interest of the peace and unity of the 
Church, that the work be delayed until after the 
ensuing General Conference, which would meet 
in May, 1849. It was contended that in the elec- 
tion of delegates to this conference the educational 
work could be made an issue and thus the will of 
the Church be definitely determined. The men 
however who had put their hands to this educa- 
tional work were courageous and determined and 
would brook no delay, and the rising tide of edu- 
cational sentiment in the Church could not be 
stayed, and so it happened that before the meeting 
of the General Conference of 1849, the founda- 
tions of Otterbein University were securely laid 
and the work of higher education in the Church 
was successfully inaugurated. 



G5 



History of Otterbein University 



CHAPTER V. 

The Opening of Otterbein University — Beginning of Its 
Work. 

The board of trustees which met for its first 
session in Westerville, April 26, 1847, to which 
reference has already been made, decided that the 
institution should be thrown open for the reception 
of student® and should begin its work on the first 
Wednesday of September, 1847. A committee, 
with Rev. L. Davis as chairman, was appointed to 
see that all needed repairs upon the buildings and 
improvements in the campus be made that every 
thing might be in readiness to open the institution 
at the time designated. A proposition from Mr. W. 
R. Griffith, about to graduate from Indiana As- 
bury (now DePauw) University, to take charge of 
the institution was considered and his employment 
decided upon. Mr. Griffith was the son of Rev. 
James Griffith of the Wabash Conference of the 
United Brethren Church, and affords an illustra- 
tion of what an increasing number of the youth 
were doing in going to the colleges of sister 
churches because the United Brethren Church had 
no such institutions. 

In view of the inexperience of the board in col- 
lege work, the secretary, Rev. Wm. Hanby, was 
directed to correspond with the managers of some 
of the leading colleges of the country and gather 

66 



The Beginning of Its Work 

information as to the proper government and 
management of colleges. After the board had 
transacted all the business deemed necessary, it ad- 
journed to meet on the thirty-first day of August, 
the day preceding the opening. On the day 
appointed the board met and completed arrange- 
ment with Professor Griffith to take charge of the 
institution under the title of principal. It also 
decided to employ Miss C. Murray as a lady 
teacher. Thus the institution began its career, 
as it has ever since continued, with both sexes rep- 
resented in its teaching force. 

At nine o'clock a.m., September 1, 1847, a 
goodly number assembled in the little chapel of 
the white frame building, which at that time con- 
stituted the main college-building, for the opening 
exercises. A portion of Scripture was read and 
there was an earnest prayer for the blessing and 
guidance of God in the new enterprise, that it 
might prove a great blessing to the Church and 
promote the glory of God. The opening address 
was then delivered by Principal Griffith. As this 
was the first address of the kind in the history of 
the Church, and may be regarded as a kind of key- 
note, the concluding portion is here inserted. 

"Education, in itself considered, is either right 
or wrong, and those engaged in promoting it are, 
so far as this work is concerned, doing right or 
they are doing wrong. If it is wrong, then it is 
the duty of the Church to exert her influence 
against it, not only by withdrawing her support, 
but by enjoining upon her members to separate 
themselves from it and by instructing her minis- 

G7 



History of Otterbein University 

ters in the sacred desk to raise their voices against 
it and not to cease their opposition until it shall 
have been driven from the earth. If it is right, 
then it is the duty of the Church to engage in it 
so far as she is able. This duty arises from her 
obligation to do good, and it applies with equal 
force to every branch of the Church. That which 
would excuse one would relieve! another. And 
shall Protestants give up the learning of the age 
into the hands of infidels and of Catholics ? Shall 
they discard science as the destroyer of religious 
purity and the enemy of human happiness % If 
they do, what will be the destiny of Christianity 
and all regulated liberty, even here in this our 
favored and happy country ? Look to France in 
the bloody revolution, when and where there were 
enacted deeds of unparalleled infamy and burning 
shame, and you will see the effects following when 
infidelity sits in power, 'Then it was/ says an 
eloquent writer, 'that their national assembly 
voted the great Grod out of the universe and caused 
to be inscribed in gloomy capitals over the gates of 
their sepulchres, "Death an eternal sleep." Then it 
was that everything virtuous and good was sacri- 
ficed to ambition and jealousy. Then it was that in- 
stead of domestic peace and individual happiness, 
insurrections and wars prevailed, and in the streets 
were made to run rivers of blood. The Sabbath 
was abolished, the Bible burnt, religion and hu- 
manity mocked, civil progress stayed, and national 
interests subverted. Earth never saw a more hor- 
rid spectacle and civil society never suffered more/ 

68 



The Beginning of Its Work 

"And what better could result if the Catholic 
Church should come into supreme authority ? 
What she would do may be known by what she 
has done. 

"I have seen the idea somewhere advanced that 
this happy country is to be the theater where 
Romanism will make a mighty struggle to restore 
her lost grandeur ; and so it would seem. She is 
building churches and establishing colleges in 
every section of our country and proffering to edu- 
cate our children. Her efforts are not in pro- 
portion to the encouragement she receives — she 
has her eye on the future. If Protestants neglect 
to provide for the education of their children, 
Catholics will educate them, and what will be the 
effect? How r many of your daughters, educated 
in Catholic schools, have taken the veil and forever 
shut themselves up within the gloomy walls of the 
convent ? And what is there more forbidding and 
unnatural than this superstitious consecration, this 
wicked separation from the business and duties of 
life? Yet these things are increasing rapidly 
in our country. Baltimore, Boston, and New York 
have seriously felt their influence. How shall we 
counteract her growing power? How can we? 
We answer, There is but one way, and that is by 
active industry in establishing and supporting 
Protestant schools. Sectarian interests and prej- 
udices ought not to have any influence here, but 
every Protestant ought to labor to support Prot- 
estant schools. We ought to make this a common 
cause. Whether Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, 
or United Brethren we ought all to unite and co- 

69 



History of Otterbein University 

operate heartily in this work. The interests of 
Christianity, and the prosperity of our government 
alike demand it. If we are not united the Inqui- 
sition, with all its cruelty, may yet be established 
among us and we be made to feel its power; but 
if we will labor as did the fearless and devoted 
Luther, not only to expose the corruptions of this 
city of Babylon, but to diffuse Christian truth both 
in its theory and practice, we may yet paralyze 
her efforts, and this humanity and religion each 
calls upon us to do. My brethren, will we engage 
to do our part ? Will we exert our influence in be- 
half of sound, Christian learning? To-day we 
commence our efforts and oh, let us labor and pray 
that it be not a feeble effort. Let us be united and 
concentrate our efforts. Let us feel as though we 
had a work to do in common with our sister 
churches — one which involves the interests of the 
American people, and let us ask the blessing of 
Him who holds the destinies of nations in his 
hands upon our labors, and success will crown our 
efforts.' 7 

Only eight students entered on its opening day 
and the institution began its work in a very small 
and humble way. The number of students, how- 
ever, during the first year reached eighty-one — 
fifty-two gentlemen and twenty-nine ladies. The 
purpose of its projectors is thus modestly set forth 
in the first catalogue: "Its friends desire to build 
up a school in which their sons and daughters, to- 
gether with others who may wish to patronize the 
institution, may receive a sound education. It is 

70 



The Beginning of Its Work 

now in its infancy, having been in operation but 
one year. The facilities of older institutions are 
not now claimed, but efforts are being put forth to 
make it in every respect what it should be." 

The students at first were quite elementary and 
miscellaneous in their stage of advancement and 
there was no attempt at classification, except as to 
sex. For a number of years the work of the insti- 
tution was not above that of a high school or acad- 
emy. Professor Griffith continued at the head of 
the institution with the title of principal for two 
years when, in 1849, Rev. Wm. Davis of Cincin- 
nati, a member of the Miami Conference, was 
elected president. Professor Griffith was elected 
professor of languages, and Mr. Sylvester Dill- 
man, a student in Oberlin College, was elected pro- 
fessor of mathematics, and Miss Lucy Carpenter, 
principal of the Ladies' Department, Miss Sylvia 
Carpenter, a sister who had held the position dur- 
ing the college year, 1848-49, retiring. Rev. Wm. 
Davis, the president-elect, did not seem disposed 
to take hold of the duties of the position, and the 
relation was largely nominal and continued but 
for one year. 

It was in 1849 that the first and only suspension 
of the work of the institution during the sixty 
years of its history occurred. In that year the 
Asiatic cholera broke out in the neighboring city 
of Columbus, and a few cases were reported in 
Westerville. This produced such a panic among 
the students that it was deemed wise to close the 
school on the nineteenth of July, about one month 
before the regular closing time. 

71 



History of Otterbein University 

At the session of the board of trustees in 1850, 
Rev. L. Davis who, as already stated, was identi- 
fied with the work of the college from the very 
beginning as general agent, as treasurer, as presi- 
dent of the board of trustees, and, indeed, as gen- 
eral-purpose man for any service required, was 
elected president, and was really the first to actu- 
ally serve in this capacity. Alexander Bartlett 
from Oberlin College, was elected professor of 
ancient languages in place of Professor W. R. 
Griffith who had resigned, and who, as principal, 
had taught the ancient languages. 

In 1851, John Haywood, a graduate of Oberlin 
College of the class of 1850, was chosen professor 
of mathematics and the natural sciences, succeed- 
ing Professor Sylvester Dillman in this position. 
Professor Haywood entered upon his duties on the 
nineteenth of March, 1851, and, with the exception 
of fiYe years, from 1862 to 1867, his connection 
with the faculty of the university was continuous 
to the time of his recent death on December 12, 
1906, a period of a little over fifty years, which is 
the record period at this date. His period of active 
service, however, covered only thirty-seven years, 
having held an emeritus relation from 1893 to the 
time of his death. Coming to the university at so 
early a period, his service was unique in character 
and importance. Associated with those largely 
who were inexperienced in the work of higher edu- 
cation, he was given a free hand in giving it shape 
and direction, not simply in the university, but in 
the United Brethren Church. Otterbein Univer- 
sity being the first college of the Church, naturally 

72 



The Beginning of Its Work 

became a model for those founded later, and her 
graduates were largely drawn upon to man them, 
especially in their earlier years. By his sterling 
qualities as a man, he was enabled to inspire the 
youth who came under his instruction with the 
idea that their education was intended to fit them 
for service, and so when they went forth into the 
world they have quite generally gotten hold of the 
world's work somehow, somewhere in a way to up- 
lift and bless. All over our own land and in lands 
far away, there are those, once his pupils, who will 
cherish and revere his memory with gratitude for 
the service he rendered them and the service he 
inspired them to render. It is in this way that the 
work of Professor Haywood, who now rests from 
his labors, still goes forward in the world. 

It was also in 1851 that Miss Sylvia Carpenter 
returned to the university as principal of the 
Ladies' Department, in which position she served 
until 1854, meanwhile, in 1852, becoming the wife 
of Professor Haywood. She was a capable and 
faithful teacher, and a noble woman, and by her 
intelligent interest and wise counsel continued an 
important factor in the work of the university 
down to the time of her death, which occurred in 
1886. Beginning her service in 1848, the second 
year of the university, she well deserves to be reck- 
oned among the worthy pioneers of the educational 
work of the United Brethren Church. 

In 1852 James Martling, from Oberlin College, 
succeeded Professor Alexander Bartlett as pro- 
fessor of ancient languages, who in turn was suc- 
ceeded by Kalph M. Walker, from Grand Kiver 

73 



History of Otterbein University 

Institute, Austinburg, Ohio. He held the pro- 
fessorship of ancient langauges until 1858, and 
then the professorship of the Latin language and 
literature until 1862, together a period of nine 
years. He was a slender, wiry man, an able and 
faithful teacher, critical, precise, and exacting, the 
admiration of the diligent and faithful and the 
terror of the idle and careless student. 

The course of study which appears in the cat- 
alogue for 1852 is quite incomplete, covering only 
four years, including preparatory studies, with 
no distinction between preparatory and college 
studies. To this course of studies the following 
paragraph was appended : 

"It is not pretended that the above is a regular 
collegiate course, but one adapted to our present 
circumstances." There was still no classification 
of students, except as to sex. Up to this time the 
students were very transient, most of them attend- 
ing but a term or two. A few, however, were con- 
tinuous in attendance, and were anxious for classi- 
fication in courses leading to graduation. Indeed, 
some were seriously discussing the question of 
seeking another college unless they were given 
classification in courses leading to degrees. Prob- 
ably the principal reason why no complete courses 
were devised, up to this time, was that the teaching 
force was not sufficient to carry such a course, and 
in the straitened financial condition of the insti- 
tution it seemed very difficult to bear the expense 
of the additional professors needed. The prospect, 
however, of losing a number of the more advanced 

74 



The Beginning of Its Work 

students aroused the Board of Trustees, and at the 
session of 1853 the following was adopted : 

"Resolved, That a college course be at once 
adopted in the Otterbein University, and that the 
faculty be, and is hereby appointed to make out a 
regular course." 

The Board also appointed the Executive 
Committee, in conjunction with the president 
of the college, to secure an additional profes- 
sor, which it was thought would be a sufficient 
addition to meet the immediate want. The 
professor procured at this time was Ralph M. 
Walker, already mentioned. In the catalogue for 
1853, evidently published after the adjournment 
of the Board, there appears for the first time a 
regular college course, and also a young ladies' 
course. This action was satisfactory to the stu- 
dents, and they remained and prosecuted their 
studies, a number of them to graduation. The col- 
lege thus early displayed its power to hold its 
students, a power which it has ever since main- 
tained. Only in the rarest instances have students, 
after reaching advanced positions in Otterbein 
University, gone to other colleges to complete their 
course. The very few who have gone have had no 
difficulty to take the same rank in the most noted 
colleges that they had reached in Otterbein Uni- 
versity. With the framing of these courses and the 
classification of students, Otterbein University 
may be said to have entered upon its proper col- 
legiate career. 

The faculty remained unchanged from 1853 to 
the graduation of the first class in 1857, except 

75 



History of Otterbein University 

that Miss Martha A. Perrin served as principal of 
the Ladies' Department for the college year 
1854-5, and Miss Mary L. Gilbert for the six years 
beginning in 1856, For several years before the 
graduation of the first class, anniversary exercises 
were held at the close of the college year, at which 
advanced students presented productions after the. 
manner of graduates at commencements. These 
exercises were held under a large canvas tent west 
of the college chapel, as the white frame building 
was called, the chapel being quite too small to ac- 
commodate the crowd. Under the same canvas 
tent the first commencement exercises were held 
June 24, 1857. There were two lady graduates, 
Miss M. Kate Winter, yet living as the widow of 
a noted graduate of Otterbein University, Ben- 
jamin R. Hanby, author of "Darling 'Nelly 
Gray" ; and Miss S. Jennie Miller, long since 
dead. President L. Davis, in delivering the 
diplomas, addressed the class as follows :* 

"I congratulate you, ladies, in being the first 
graduates of this institution. If we could lift the 
veil that hides the future from our sight, we 
should doubtless see a long line of educated Chris- 
tians who will go forth from this institution, and 
you are the beginning, you are the first on the 
list. 

"You will be remembered as long as this college 
stands. You may have had difficulties, but dili- 
gence and perseverance have enabled you to over- 



*While the author was present and heard the address, he 
is indebted to Mr. Jacob Burgner, of the class of 1859, a 
stenographer, for the copy given. 

76 



The Beginning of Its Work 

come all these, and in the judgment of the trustees 
and faculty you well deserve the honors of the in- 
stitution. 

"You have not impaired your health, concern- 
ing which your teachers felt a deep interest. 

"In relation to your mental improvement, you 
found at the threshold of the entrance to knowl- 
edge that you had to deal with facts, but you 
soon found that facts only conduct the mind to the 
discovery of systematized truth. Mind loves order, 
harmony, unity, beauty of connection; but even 
here the mind is in want of a science that overleaps 
the bounds of time and sense, and takes hold of 
infinity. Science dwells in the bosom of God, and 
her voice is the harmony of the world. 

"In relation to your moral improvement, I am 
happy to know that you have said for the first time 
in your hearts, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do?' 

"Whatever may be the strength and vigor of 
your minds ; whatever the amount of influence you 
may exert upon society — with the simplicity of a 
child, lay it all at the feet of Jesus, remembering 
that science, like the moon, can only shine through 
the medium of another. Then we are happy to be 
able to return you to the bosom of your friends, 
as we trust, wiser and better than when you came 
among us." 

President Davis, having been reelected a bishop 
by the General Conference held in May, 1857, re- 
signed the presidency of Otterbein University at 
the Board session held in June of that year. Pro- 
fessor Ralph M. Walker was appointed to serve as 



History of Otterbein University 

acting president for the ensuing year, when at its 
session in 1858 the board elected Rev. Alexander 
Owen preident, a member of the Allegheny Con- 
ference, who was at the time editor of the Unity 
Magazine, at Dayton, Ohio. He served with abil- 
ity and faithfulness until 1860, when, on account 
of impaired health, he resigned, and the Board 
again elected Rev. L. Davis, though his term as 
bishop had not yet expired. President Davis then 
continued to serve until 1871, when he was called 
to a professorship in Union Biblical Seminary, 
which was founded in that year. 

The only persons not before mentioned who were 
members of the faculty down to 1860, the pioneer 
period of the university, were Jacob Zeller, who 
served as tutor in languages in 1857-8 ; Rev. S. W. 
Streeter, who served at professor of mental philos- 
ophy in 1857-8, and professor of rhetoric and 
belles-lettres in 1858-60, and Lucian H. Ham- 
mond, who served as professor of rhetoric and 
belles-lettres in 1857-8, and as professor of Greek 
in 1858-62 ; Rev. J. Degmeier, who served as pro- 
fessor of modern languages in 1859-62, and 
Thomas McFadden who served as professor of 
natural science in 1858-62. As the latter reentered 
the faculty in 1866 and served for many years, a 
further account of his service will appear in a sub- 
sequent chapter. 



73 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 



CHAPTEK VI. 

Coeducation in Otterbein University — Second College in the 
World to Admit Women on Equality with Men — Pop- 
ular Fallacies. 

Otterbein University has been a coeducational 
college from the beginning. When it is remem- 
bered that when Otterbein University was founded 
Oberlin College was the only coeducational insti- 
tution in the country, it seems a little remarkable 
that the fathers of the United Brethren Church 
should found this kind of an institution, appar- 
ently without the least doubt of its wisdom and 
propriety. The Blendon Young Men's Seminary, 
of which Otterbein University may be regarded 
as the successor, as its name implies, admitted only 
gentlemen. How, then, are we to account for the 
course of the fathers in establishing a coeducation- 
al college, so contrary to the general precedents of 
the time ? Doubtless it is mainly to be accounted 
for by the genius and general spirit of the United 
Brethren Church. This Church has always ac- 
corded to women a high place, so far as rights and 
privileges assured by the polity of the Church are 
concerned, a position of equality with men. Local 
church officers, such as stewards, class-leaders, 
Sabbath-school superintendents, etc., are elected 
by popular suffrage, not simply of men, but of 
women. So in the election of delegates to the 
General Conference, the women share the suffrage 
upon entirely equal terms with men. More than 

79 



History of Otterbein University 

this, the women are eligible to election to any of 
the positions named, and have been chosen and 
have served in all of them. When women came 
forward with the conviction that God called them 
to the sacred office of the ministry, they found no 
obstacles in the polity of the Church, and numbers 
of them, by the authority of the Church, are 
preaching the gospel of Christ. When, in the 
exercise of the popular suffrage, the members saw 
fit to elect women as delegates to the General Con- 
ference, it produced no commotion or trouble, and 
required no special modification of the polity, but 
they were promptly admitted to the highest coun- 
cil of the Church without question or doubt. Surely 
it is not strange that a Church thus accustomed to 
liberty and equality, when she came to found a 
college should throw open her doors on equal terms 
to both sexes. Not to have done so, while it would 
have been to conform to the policy of other 
churches, for her it would have been an exceptional 
discrimination against women. 

There has been some dispute as to what college 
is entitled to the honor of first admitting women on 
terms of entire equality with men. In a paper on 
"Horace Mann and Antioch College," read by Mr. 
W. A. Bell, editor of the Indiana School Journal, 
at the meeting of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation, held at Buffalo, New York, in July, 1896, 
this honor is claimed for Antioch College, at Yel- 
low Springs, Ohio. In this paper Mr. Bell says: 
"Up to the time of opening Antioch (1853), Ober- 
lin is the only college that had opened its doors to 
women." As Otterbein University was founded in 

80 





Rev. WILLIAM HANBY 
An Early Financial Agent 



Rev. S. M. HIPPARD 

General Financial Agent 

for Thirteen Years 



/ «~>» 



T^ >»*■ 





Rev. J. B. RESLEK 

One of the Financial Agents 
and Solicitors 



Rev. W. SLAUGHTER 
One of the First Fmjawcial Agents 




Miss M. L. Gilbert 
R. M. Walker 



jfacultp ot X859 

John Haywood 
L, H. Hammond 



Thomas McFadden 
S. W. Streeter 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

1847, antedating Antioch by six years, and as al- 
ready stated, admitted women from the beginning, 
it is plain that Mr. Bell is in error in this state- 
ment. 

Again, Mr. Bell says : "Under the presidency of 
Horace Mann, Antioch College was the first college 
in the world to offer women absolutely equal edu- 
cational advantages with men." Mr. Bell urges 
this claim against Oberlin College on the ground 
that, while Oberlin permitted women to take the 
regular bachelor's course required of young men 
prior to the founding of Antioch, this, he claims, 
was exceptional, and granted to a few ladies as a 
special favor, while they were expected to take, and 
generally did take what was known as the ladies' 
course, which "lacked a great deal of being equal 
to the regular course for young men." Dr. J. B. 
Weston, who was president of Antioch College 
after Horace Mann, claims that the young women 
who pursued the full classical course at Oberlin 
were not recognized as on an equality with the 
young men, because they were not permitted to 
present their own productions on commencement 
day, as were the young men. Hence he claims 
that three young women who graduated from 
Antioch College in its first class, in 1857, were the 
first who completed the full classical course and 
appeared on commencement day on the same plat- 
form and took their own parts in full equality with 
men. 

The practice of Oberlin College in dealing with 
young women graduates is thus set forth by the 
historian of Oberlin College, Ex-President James 

6 81 



History of Otterbein University 

H. Fairchild: "When the first class of young 
women had completed the ladies' course, they 
were not brought before the great congregation on 
commencement to read their essays. They called 
together their friends, by tickets of invitation, the 
evening before commencement, and read their 
essays in their own assembly-room, receiving no 
diplomas. The two following years this anniver- 
sary was held in the college chapel the evening be- 
fore commencement, and the young ladies read 
before as large an assembly as the chapel could 
contain. Theoretically this was the Ladies' Anni- 
versary, and not a part of commencement proper, 
which was held the next day in the large tent. The 
next year, 1843, the commencement was held in 
the large new church not yet completed, and the 
young women of the ladies' course read in the 
same church the preceding afternoon, and re- 
ceived their diplomas. From this time onward the 
anniversary of the Ladies' Department was reck- 
oned as a part of the commencement, but the ar- 
rangement was designed to indicate that it was the 
day for the ladies specially. The platform was oc- 
cupied by the Ladies' Board of Managers, and the 
announcements were made by the lady principal, 
the president of the college being at hand to open 
with prayer and present the diplomas. 

"When the first young women came to graduate, 
having completed the full college course, they nat- 
urally felt some anxiety as to the place that should 
be given them at commencement. It was proposed 
to them that they should read their essays on the 
preceding day, with the young women of the 

82 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

ladies' course, it being announced that they had 
taken the full college course, and should come for- 
ward the following day with the class to receive 
the degree. This was not thought to provide a 
suitable discrimination, and to avoid the impro- 
priety of having the young ladies read from a plat- 
form arranged for the speaking of young men, and 
filled with trustees, and professors, and distin- 
guished gentlemen visitors, the essays of the lady 
college graduates were read by the professor of 
rhetoric, the young women coming upon the plat- 
form with their class at the close to receive their 
diplomas. This arrangement was continued 
eighteen years, but became less and less satis- 
factory, and in 1859, for the first time, the young 
women were permitted to read their own essays 
with the graduating class, and in 1874 a young 
lady graduate, who desired it, was permitted to 
speak instead of reading an essay, and this liberty 
is still accorded. " 

In Otterbein University there never has been 
any discrimination against young women grad- 
uates, whether on commencement day or at any 
other time. True, there was, for a number of years 
a ladies' course inferior to the course in the arts, 
but there was at the same time a minor course of 
the same grade open to young men, while the reg- 
ular arts course was always open on precisely the 
same terms to both sexes. The first young lady to 
graduate from the regular arts course from Otter- 
bein University was in 1860, with the fourth class 
that graduated from the institution. On the prin- 
ciples on which Mr. Bell claims for Antioch Col- 

83 



History of Otterbein University 

lege priority to Oberlin College, Otterbein Univer- 
sity is entitled to priority, both to Antiocb and 
Oberlin. A fair distribution of honors would 
seem to be to give to Oberlin the honor of being 
the first to graduate young ladies from the regular 
arts course required of young men in 1841 ; to give 
to Otterbein University the honor of being the 
first to throw open its doors to young women with- 
out limitation or restriction of any kind, in 1847 ; 
and to Antioch College the honor, as claimed by 
Dr. Weston, of being the first to send forth young 
women graduates on terms of complete equality 
with men, in 1857. Upon this generous distribu- 
tion of honors let there be peace. 

The first young lady graduate of Otterbein Uni- 
versity to speak instead of read on commencement 
day went forth with the class of 1868, anticipating 
Oberlin by six years. Since that time, unless there 
was a representative speaker, the rule has been for 
young ladies to speak, the exception to read, on 
commencement day. The United Brethren Church 
is so thoroughly committed to the policy of coedu- 
cation that all her colleges are, and always have 
been coeducational. She has never founded an in- 
stitution exclusively for ladies. Even her theo- 
logical school, Union Biblical Seminary, is open 
on equal terms to both ladies and gentlemen. It 
cannot be claimed that there have been no difficul- 
ties and evils connected with this policy, but they 
have not been serious, and upon the whole it has 
been eminently satisfactory. Young men and 
women have been associated together in the class- 
rooms, at the tables of the boarding-halls, and in 

84 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

society, with mutual advantage. In very rare in- 
stances unworthy young women gained admission 
to the institution and had to be sent home. A very 
few young men have been dismissed for indiscreet 
deportment toward women, not members of the col- 
lege, but in the sixty years now passed into history 
there has not been a single known case of the be- 
trayal of a young lady student. Otterbein Univer- 
sity has found the coeducational policy eminently 
safe. Indeed, the results seem to show that the 
thousands of young women who have been students 
in the college have been quite as safe as they would 
have been had they remained in their own homes. 
The experience of Otterbein University goes to 
prove that the sexes, always together while growing 
up in the home, and destined to live together after 
they are grown up, should not be separated during 
the process of secondary and higher education. 
The normal and helpful association of young men 
and women in college is the best safeguard against 
the temptation to abnormal and harmful associa- 
tion. As to matters of government and discipline, 
coeducation relieves and simplifies the problem. 
The tendencies of young men to self-will, rudeness, 
and violence, are restrained and held in check by 
association with the more gentle-natured young 
women, while the young women are helped to 
ease, self-possession, and strength by their associa- 
tion with young men.* 

So in the matter of instruction and study, coedu- 
cation has decided advantages. It tends to prevent 

♦See discussion in proceedings of Nat. Ed. Association, 
1890, pp. 338-343. 

85 



History of Otterbein University 

exclusiveness and one-sidedness in the courses and 
methods such as will result in an unsymmetrical 
and thus a weak development. A course of study 
devised with careful reference to the wants of both 
young men and young women will better meet the 
wants of both than a course devised with exclusive 
reference to the wants of each will meet each. If 
it be true that young men incline more to the 
severer studies, such as mathematics and meta- 
physics, and young women to the lighter studies, 
such as literature, poetry, etc., for this very reason 
there should be coeducation and coeducational 
courses of study, that these inclinations may mu- 
tually check and correct each other, thus assur- 
ing the best possible training and development for 
both. As a practical proof may be cited the fact 
that the foremost coeducational institutions have 
long since abandoned their so-called ladies' courses, 
which were supposed to be especially adapted to 
the wants of young women, and now expect young 
men and women to pursue the same courses. It is 
fair to conclude that these institutions would not 
have done this if they did not consider the latter 
course better than the former. Experienced edu- 
cators in founding coeducational colleges now — 
and it may be asked whether the time is not near 
at hand, if it has not already arrived when expe- 
rienced educators will not think of founding any 
other kind than coeducational colleges — certainly 
would not deem it wise to provide different courses 
of study for young men and young women. Such 
educators would now expect to meet any special 
needs as between the sexes, as they meet special 



Coeducation in Otterbein University- 
needs as between different individuals of the same 
sex, by a variety of courses of study, and by liberty 
of selection among a number of elective studies. 
The general needs of both sexes are the same, and 
the best education to meet these needs is identical. 
So in the work of instruction the coeducational 
college has the advantage because, if consistent, it 
has both sexes represented in its faculty, Mr. Bell, 
in the paper to which reference has already been 
made, says: "Antioch was the first college in the 
world to admit women to its faculty." Its first 
faculty contained two women. As Otterbein Uni- 
versity has had women in its faculty from its foun- 
dation, in 1847, to the present time, Mr. Bell's 
claim for Antioch in this respect is unfounded. 
This is not, however, a matter of much conse- 
quence. The matter of importance is that the best 
education is assured where both sexes are not sim- 
ply represented in the student body, but where 
both sexes are represented in the faculty or teach- 
ing body. One of the great advantages of coedu- 
cation in our colleges is that it has given women a 
place in the faculty. If it be important that young 
men and women be associated together in the 
prosecution of their studies, it is just as really im- 
portant that students come under the instruction 
of both men and women as teachers. In our pri- 
mary and secondary schools women have long held 
a large and prominent place. Indeed, it may be a 
question whether in our primary schools she has 
not gained too large a place for the best results. It 
may be a question whether the children in the pri- 
mary grades are not too exclusively under the 

87 



History of Otterbein University 

tuition of a lady teacher. The paucity of women 
in our coeducational college is, however, as yet as 
marked as their preponderance in our primary 
schools. It may he expected that as the coeduca- 
tional system in our colleges is extended and per- 
fected, women will fill more places in their facul- 
ties. 

Coeducation has already disposed of a number 
of popular fallacies which were widely prevalent 
when Otterbein University was founded, such as 
that women do not desire an education equal to 
that of men ; that they have not the mental capac- 
ity to acquire it ; that they do not have the physi- 
cal strength to keep equal pace with men in its 
acquisition, and, finally, that they do not need 
equal education. 

As to the question whether women desire equal 
education with men, the experience of Oberlin is 
instructive. No one can read the paragraph 
quoted from the history of Oberlin in this chapter 
without making the discovery that the young 
women who entered the regular arts course pur- 
sued by the young men did not do so because they 
were urged or even invited by the college authori- 
ties. The movement started among the young 
women themselves, through the impulse of their 
own desires. The movement was yielded to with 
apparent reluctance and by piecemeal, first to pur- 
sue the arts course with young men, but not to 
present their productions on the same day at com- 
mencement; then to appear on the same day and 
platform with young men to take their degrees, but 
not to present their own productions ; then the last, 

88 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

in 1859, to appear without limitation or restric- 
tion of any kind, but on full equality with men. 
Let no one say that young women who will thus 
press their claims, persevering through a period of 
more than a quarter of a century, in spite of all 
obstacles and discouragements, until at last their 
efforts are crowned with complete success, do not 
desire equal education with men. 

So the movement to abolish the inferior ladies' 
course came mainly from the women themselves. 
They were not content simply to win the privilege 
of pursuing the regular arts course. They saw in 
the inferior course provided for ladies an impli- 
cation which they felt to resent, and they did not 
rest until this course was abolished, as it has been 
by most reputable coeducational colleges. 

As to the claim that young women have not the 
mental capacity for equal education with men, it 
scarcely deserves serious reply. When this matter 
was brought to a fair and practical test, as it was 
in the coeducational colleges where young men and 
women appeared in the same classes and measured 
strength with each other, it has appeared that how- 
ever great the ability of the young men, the young 
women would not infrequently, in spite of the ut- 
most efforts of these young men, distance and sur- 
pass them, and walk off with the honors of the con- 
test. This has occurred quite too often to allow 
young men to plume themselves, as a class, upon 
superior mental capacity. The uniform testimony 
from coeducational colleges is that where women 
are given equal opportunities with men, they will 
as a class keep well abreast of them in mental 

89 



History of Otterbein University 

achievement. The faculties of such colleges as 
unhesitatingly and confidently admit women as 
men to the regular arts course. 

Admitting, however, the capacity of young 
women to master the same courses of study with 
young men, it may still be asked whether it is best 
for them to pursue such a course. It may be asked 
whether woman's mind is not so different from 
man's that she cannot pursue the same course of 
study as man without losing something of that re- 
finement of thought and charm of manners so de- 
sirable in woman. The practice of coeducation 
affords no doubtful answer to these inquiries. It 
has shown that the grace, delicacy, and refinement 
of woman's mind, instead of being marred or de- 
stroyed by pursuing the same course of study with 
young men, are improved and intensified by being 
joined with somewhat of the vigor and strength of 
man's mind, just as the vigor and strength of man's 
mind are improved when joined with the grace and 
delicacy of woman's. It has shown that the vigor 
and strength of man's mind and the refinement 
and delicacy of woman's are not antagonistic, but 
harmonious characteristics, and that coeducation 
is the best system because it assures their proper 
combination. 

The apprehensions, which many formerly felt, 
that young women had not the physical strength 
to keep pace with young men in their studies, have 
also proved to be unfounded. As a class they have 
endured the work as well as young men, and fail- 
ure through physical weakness has not been ex- 
ceptionally common among women students. The 

90 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

fearful consequences which were predicted if there 
should be an attempt to give woman an equal edu- 
cation with man, have not come to pass. Dr. 
Clarke, in his little book, "Sex in Education," 
written about a third of a century ago, inveighs 
vigorously against coeducation, especially if it be 
also identical education, mainly on physiological 
grounds. "Appropriate education," says he, "of 
the two sexes, carried as far as possible, is a con- 
summation most devoutly to be desired ; identical 
education of the two> sexes is a crime before God 
and humanity that physiology protests against, 
and that experience weeps over." These words 
were written at a time when coeducation in our 
colleges was in its infancy, and experience was 
very limited. Experience since Dr. Clarke wrote 
goes to show that his apprehensions, in the main, 
are groundless. It is fair to Dr. Clarke to say that 
his contention against identical education was on 
the assumption, an assumption which was much 
nearer the truth than it is now, that identical edu- 
cation meant that young women pursue courses of 
study devised exclusively for young men. But this 
is no longer true of our coeducational colleges. Both 
the courses and methods of instruction in these col- 
leges are adopted with reference to the physical as 
well as mental and moral wants of both sexes. The 
calamities to women students and to womankind of 
which he gave warning have not come to pass. In- 
deed, experience seems to show that coeducation re- 
sults not only in a better mental and moral, but 
also a better physical development. Experience 
here is more convincing than whole volumes of 

91 



History of Otterbein University 

theory and speculation by even the most eminent 
physicians. 

The notion that women do not need an educa- 
tion equal to that of men, once well nigh universal, 
has largely disappeared from the convictions of in- 
telligent persons. Coeducational colleges them- 
selves, by broadening the conception of woman's 
sphere and work, had very much to do with expos- 
ing this fallacy. As soon as woman was given 
equal education with man, the discovery was made 
thai much work which it had been thought man 
alone could do, woman could do as well as man, and 
so she began to share this work with man. In the 
home coeducation did much to elevate the concep- 
tion of woman's position from that of a mere doll 
or drudge to that of a queen, with duties as diffi- 
cult, delicate, and important, and as much demand- 
ing highest education as any duties that ever fall to 
the lot of man. Coeducational colleges were the 
pioneers to open the way to woman into the wider 
sphere she is now occupying and the larger work 
she is now doing. Woman has demonstrated her 
need of an education equal to that of man by the 
equally effective use she has been able to make of 
it when acquired. In literature, art, teaching, and 
especially in moral, social, and civil reform work, 
when given equal education, she has shown herself 
to be a worthy peer of man. Woman is much in- 
clined to the work which the world most needs, and 
which has a most vital bearing upon the welfare of 
mankind, and it is plain that for such work she 
needs an education in no respect inferior to that of 
man. 

92 



Coeducation in Otterbein University 

As yet the proportion of women in our coeduca- 
tional colleges is not equal to the number of men, 
but their proportion is increasing, and is doubtless 
destined to continue increasing. In the secondary 
schools the young women greatly outnumber the 
young men — in Ohio in the proportion of more 
than three to one — a most significant fact, which 
cannot but have a very important bearing upon the 
position of woman in relation to the world's work 
in the future. As the number of coeducational col- 
leges increases, as it is morally certain to do, and as 
the number of women who have an equal education 
with men swells, and they combine their cultured 
skill and power with man to solve the grave prob- 
lems which have for ages baffled the skill of man 
alone to solve, we may confidently expect that these 
problems will find solution and the race advance to 
a higher plane of civilization and welfare. It must 
ever be a fact of great historic interest that Otter- 
bein University stands second among colleges in 
the world — Oberlin holds first place — to throw 
open its doors to both men and women, and offer 
them equal education. 



History of Otterbein University 



OHAPTEK VII. 

Early Financial Methods and Struggles — The Work of the 
Agents — A Dark Crisis Passed. 

Altogether the most serious and difficult part of 
the educational problem in founding and main- 
taining Otterbein University, and, indeed, in the 
development of the entire educational work of the 
Church, has been the financial part, and it has 
been in this part of the work that results have been 
least satisfactory, though marked by some grand 
achievements. In the work of instruction it has 
always been possible to meet the needs of the 
Church fairly well as they arose. In the earlier 
history of the work it was done by drawing, to a 
limited extent, upon the cultured talent of other 
churches, but in later years there has been almost 
no draft upon foreign talent. In the financial 
management there has been exclusive reliance 
upon the home talent of the Church. The general 
agents, managers, and soliciting agents have all 
been drawn from her own ranks, and, with very 
rare exceptions, from the ministry. As already 
explained, the purchase of Blendon Young Men's 
Seminary was consummated by Scioto Conference 
without a dollar of money in hand with which to 
make payment. The purchase price, $1,300, now 
seems ridiculously small to occasion any trouble, 
and had this been all, there certainly would have 
been no serious trouble to secure the money. The 



Early Financial Struggles 

property purchased, however, had been idle for 
several years and was much in need of repairs, 
while the upper story of the brick dormitory was 
in an unfinished condition. The white frame 
building, which, at the time, constituted the main 
college-building, was soon found too* small and an 
addition was planned and built. When the actual 
work of the college began, it was speedily discov- 
ered that the tuition paid by the students was not 
sufficient to pay the teachers, beggarly as were the 
salaries. Deficits were also found in the boarding- 
hall accounts, in the funds from which agents' sal- 
aries and expenses were paid, etc., so that by the 
time the original debt was paid a much larger debt 
had taken its place; this in spite of the fact that 
L. Davis, who* largely bore the responsibility of the 
early financial management, was close and prudent 
almost to a fault in his financial administration. 
Thus very early in its career the needs of the col- 
lege grew more rapidly than the funds could be 
secured to meet them, and, with some splendid 
reliefs along the way, this has been the case ever 
since. 

To meet the growing indebtedness and provide 
for the enlargement of the institution, there 
seemed no practicable way except to appoint solic- 
iting agents and send them out through the con- 
ferences cooperating with the college, to visit the 
members of the Church at their homes and plead 
the cause of the college, asking them for their 
financial support. This was a most difficult work, 
for on the other hand was a Church whose members 
were unaccustomed to such solicitation, and who 

95 



History of Otterbein University 

had little comprehension of the financial needs of 
a college, and on the other hand were agents en- 
tirely inexperienced in college building and with 
little better comprehension of the needs of the 
work than the members themselves. It is not 
strange, therefore, that the sums they asked were 
quite inadequate to meet the needs 'of the college, 
and that even these inadequate sums seemed ex- 
travagant to the persons solicited, and were fre- 
quently refused or were sharply cut down in 
amount. The agents, too 1 , seemed able to secure 
but a very small proportion of their solicitations 
in cash, in many cases not enough to pay their 
own salaries and expenses, small as these were. 
Instead of cash, they found it necessary to take 
notes in small sums on long time, and usually with- 
out interest. Sometimes these notes were made 
payable in annual installments covering a period 
of five or more years, thus greatly increasing the 
expense by the visitations and labor necessary to 
collect. The soliciting agents, being naturally 
anxious to make as good a showing as possible by 
reporting a large aggregate solicited, were under a 
constant temptation to make it easy for donors by 
granting long time and liberal terms; but in pro- 
portion as terms were made easy to those who gave, 
their gifts to the college were diminished in value. 
Upon the whole, the agency system, especially in 
the early history of the college, proved a very 
costly one. Despite the meager salaries paid, a 
heavy per cent, of the money solicited was con- 
sumed in paying the salaries and expenses of the 
agents. 

96 




Rev JONATHAN WEAVER, D. D. 

Former Financial Agent and Solicitor 




Rev. H. A. THOMPSON, D. D. 

President for Fourteen Years and Member of the Faculty 
for Twenty Years 



Early Financial Struggles 

It is easy to criticize these pioneers of the edu- 
cational work of the Church for employing so 
costly a method. It is easy to say that it would 
have been far wiser for the members of the Church 
to pay the money needed without the solicitation 
of agents, and so relieve themselves from the bur- 
den of this expensive method. It would have been 
wiser, doubtless, if the members had furnished the 
money without solicitation, but it is not very wise, 
when the condition of the Church at that early day 
is considered, to expect that they would do so. The 
mass of the members then very much needed infor- 
mation. They needed to have their interest 
aroused and to have the necessity and duty of 
giving to this work pressed home closely, and 
there seemed to be no effective way to do these 
things except by soliciting agents. The soliciting 
agent served as the "schoolmaster abroad" to carry 
on a campaign of education in the Church; and 
the cost of his service was the tuition which the 
members paid for their schooling. Even now, 
with all the progress which has been made, with 
all the knowledge and experience which has been 
gained, the support of the university still largely 
comes from those who would not give if soliciting 
agents did not visit them and appeal to them face 
to face. If the alternative still is to resort to the 
costly method of employing soliciting agents or 
fail, much more was this true at the beginning of 
the work. 

During the first thirteen years, which may be 
considered the pioneer period, seventeen persons 
labored for Otterbein University in the capacity of 



History of Otterbein University 

soliciting agents. They were L. Davis, John Law- 
rence, Wm. Slaughter, Peter T abler, Solomon 
Weaver, A. Winter, Wm. Hanby, Henry Kumler, 
J. B. Resler, Jonathan Weaver, Levi Moore, W. 
G. Wells, Peter Flack, B. R. Hanby, I. A. Coons, 
and H. Hain, all ministers except the last two. 
These all were appointed by the authority of the 
board of trustees of the college. Besides these, in 
the beginning of the work, a few agents were 
appointed by the annual conferences themselves to 
labor for the interests of the college in the bounds 
of the conferences appointing them. This plan 
was designed, in part at least, to relieve the college 
from the burden of paying the salaries of the 
agents; but the conferences, having no fund for 
the payment of agents' salaries, and these agents, 
like the agents employed by the college, frequently 
not securing enough cash to pay their own salaries 
and expenses, found the plan burdensome, and it 
was used to only a limited extent, and the chief 
responsibility for the solicitation of funds has 
always fallen upon the college itself. It is fair to 
state that the fact that an agent did not solicit 
enough cash to pay his own salary and expenses 
did not necessarily prove such agent unsuccessful. 
There were some such agents who rendered very 
valuable service to the college in the large pledges 
they secured in the form of notes. The persons 
among whom these agents labored, as a class, did 
not have large possessions and did not have much 
cash in hand, and the alternative often was either 
to secure little or nothing for the college, or con- 
sent to take notes payable at a future date. Per- 



Early Financial Struggles 

sons who could not or would not give more than 
five or ten dollars in cash, could often be induced 
to give fifty, a hundred, five hundred, or more in 
the form of notes. This, however, involved the 
necessity for the college to borrow the money to 
pay these salaries and expenses until the notes 
could be collected. Thus, early in the history of 
the college, by force of necessity, began the policy 
of carrying forward the work of the college in part 
upon borrowed money, a policy which has proved a 
great burden and has cost the managers of the 
college many a sore struggle to command the 
money needed and meet the interest claims. 

Of the seventeen agents employed during the 
first thirteen years, only seven served for more 
than one year. In faithfulness and devotion to 
the work there was probably no material difference 
between them, but in skill and success there was. 
The college in its early history was obliged to em- 
ploy men inexperienced and untried, and learn 
who could serve it to the greatest advantage in the 
relation of agent. While freely admitting the im- 
portant service rendered by some who continued in 
the service for but a short time, yet it may be said 
that, in general, those who continued for a series 
of years constitute the more successful class. To 
this latter class belong seven who began their serv- 
ice during the first thirteen years. They are Revs. 
L. Davis, Wm. Slaughter, Peter Tabler, Peter 
Flack, Jonathan Weaver, J. B. Resler, and B. R. 
Hanby. These all were successful agents, though 
several of them rendered their chief service later 
than the first thirteen years. Among these seven, 

99 

LOFC. 



History of Otterbeiu University 

Eevs. L. Davis, Wm. Slaughter, Jonathan Weaver, 
and J. B. Resler stand preeminent, both as to the 
number of years they served and the amount of 
money they secured for the college. These four 
could succeed where others would fail, and where 
these could not succeed, few, if any, could. The 
money brought to the college by no one of these 
four agents could have been withheld without 
seriously crippling and perhaps ruining the col- 
lege. 

Of Rev. L. Davis, who easily outranks all, be- 
cause he was the first in this field of work, because 
he served the college the longest, and because he 
probably brought to the college the largest aggre- 
gate of money, some account has already been 
given. 

Rev. Wm. Slaughter began his service for the 
college as an agent in 1851, and immediately gave 
evidence of superior qualifications for this work. 
Mr. Slaughter was born in Pike County, Ohio, in 
1816. He was a member of the Scioto Annual 
Conference, in which he rose rapidly to a position 
of commanding influence. Without the advan- 
tages of anything more than a common school edu- 
cation, he was a man of good native gifts, a fluent 
speaker, and a good preacher. He was a man 
of good presence, suave manner, and pleasant 
address. His graces of manner gave him wide pop- 
ularity, and, being a tireless worker, he attained a 
position of wide influence and extensive useful- 
ness. His gifts and graces were a good equipment 
for the agency work, in which he served Otterbein 
University for eight years and wrought the chief 

100 



Early Financial Struggles 

work of his life. In this service, by hard work and 
willing sacrifice, he linked his name with Otter- 
bein University as one of its pioneer workers. 
Such was his recognized skill as an agent that 
even after he had drifted out of harmony with the 
Church in some matters of polity, on account of 
which he was constrained to resign his agency, he 
was yet appealed to by the executive committee of 
the college to come to their aid in carrying the col- 
lege through some threatening financial straits. 
He responded by reentering the agency tempo- 
rarily, and so inspired the confidence and enlisted 
the interest of men of means as to secure, in the 
form of loans and gifts, the money needed, and, 
probably, was instrumental, at the time, in saving 
the college from financial ruin. Mr. Slaughter 
was a large factor in the early history of Otterbein 
University. He died in 1875, in Philadelphia, 
Pa., and sleeps in the Otterbein Cemetery, Wester- 
ville, Ohio, near the university he served so effi- 
ciently. 

Rev. Jonathan Weaver was elected an agent of 
Otterbein University in 1856, but did not enter 
into the service of the college until 1857, when he 
was again elected. Mr. Weaver was born in Car- 
roll County, Ohio, in 1824. His early educational 
advantages were limited and poor, consisting of 
the country public schools of the time, supple- 
mented by five months in a Presbyterian academy 
at Hagerstown, Ohio. He entered the ministry 
and became a member of the Muskingum Confer- 
ence in 1847, the same session, as recited in a 
previous chapter, at which the invitation presented 

101 



History of Otterbein University 

to the conference through Eev. L. Davis to cooper- 
ate with Otterbein University was rejected, which 
action, however, was reversed at the following 
session in 1848, when the conference voted to co- 
operate. He applied himself closely to study and 
rose rapidly to a position of prominence and influ- 
ence in his conference. At the time when he be- 
came an agent of Otterbein University, in 1857, 
he was in his early prime. His qualifications for 
this work, which he always regarded as the most 
difficult of his life, were a genial disposition, hard, 
practical common sense, and a thorough acquaint- 
ance with the class of persons in the Church from 
whom the means for the support of the college were 
to be secured. He had the skill, patience, and per- 
sistency to press his case to success with the mem- 
bership of the Church without giving offense to 
any. He had a peculiar power of retaining the 
good will of those he pressed hard to give aid to 
the college. He could always return with cordial 
welcome to the fields he had canvassed for the col- 
lege. This was not true of all agents. Some, even 
when successful, pursued a course which irritated 
the people to such an extent that they did not wish 
to see them again. This was never true of Mr. 
Weaver. After having served in the agency for 
eight years, traveling east and west in the territory 
of the college, he was more thoroughly entrenched 
in the confidence and affections of the Church than 
ever before. The period during which Mr. Weaver 
served as an agent was a peculiarly trying one, as 
will be explained, in part, in the next chapter, and 
the college was very fortunate in having in its 

102 



Early Financial Struggles 

service at this trying time a man of such skill, 
patience, and perseverance, and one who was so 
successful in securing the money which the college 
so sorely needed. Jonathan Weaver is eminently 
worthy to go on record as one of the successful 
pioneers of the educational work of the Church. 
He died at Dayton, Ohio, February 6, 1901, after 
a long and distinguished career as a bishop of the 
Church. 

Rev. J. B. Resler, who began his service for 
Otterbein University as an agent in the same year 
as Rev. J. Weaver, was born in Fayette County, 
Pa., in 1821, and became a member of Allegheny 
Conference, of that State, in 1842. When he came 
to Otterbein University as an agent he had had 
already a number of years' experience in the 
agency work, having served as agent for Mt. Pleas- 
ant College, Pennsylvania, which in 1857, as 
already stated, was transferred to Otterbein Uni- 
versity. Mr. Resler rendered his first service for 
Otterbein University in the bounds of his own con- 
ference, the Allegheny, in soliciting the money to 
pay the burdensome debt with which Mt. Pleasant 
College was encumbered when it was transferred 
to Otterbein University, and in negotiating the 
sale of Mt, Pleasant College, in both of which he 
was successful. Mr. Resler, while not himself an 
educated man, was one of the earlier champions of 
higher education in the Church, both for the min- 
istry and for the laity. He was a man of powerful 
frame, great zeal, good ability, and unflagging per- 
severance, and while his chief service for Otter- 
bein University in the agency work was at a period 

103 



History of Otterbein University 

subsequent to the first thirteen years of its history, 
which we have designated as the pioneer period, 
yet his work during this early period was suffi- 
ciently extensive and successful to entitle him to a 
high place among the pioneers of the educational 
work of the Church. He died in 1891, at Wester- 
ville^ where he is buried. 

In spite, however, of the faithful and, on the 
part of a number, the successful labors of these 
agents, the work grew more rapidly than the 
money could be gathered to sustain it, and the 
struggle occasioned by financial embarrassment 
early began. At a called session of the board of 
trustees, which met in February, 1850, the follow- 
ing resolution adopted by the board, reflects the 
troubled situation as well as the courage and deter- 
mination of the trustees : 

"Resolved, That it is our judgment that the 
Otterbein University be sustained now and for- 
ever, and that we will use every honorable means 
in connection with the general agent to relieve 
the present embarrassment, lift the institution 
out of debt, and then fit up and improve the build- 
ings, so that it may become in time a respectable 
college." 

But six of the nine trustees of the college were 
present at this session, and after the adoption of 
the above resolution a proposition, such as was des- 
tined to be repeated frequently at subsequent meet- 
ings of the board, was presented. It was to make 
an effort in open board to raise contributions at 
once to relieve the embarrassment of the college. 
On this occasion it resulted in pledges amounting 

104 



Early Financial Struggles 

to two hundred dollars, of which sum sixty dollars 
were in cash. 

Despite all efforts, the debt continued to in- 
crease from year to year. At the same, time the 
need of a better and larger main college-building 
was keenly felt. As early as the session of the 
board in 1853, the executive committee was 
authorized to go forward with the new building 
just as fast as the funds could be raised for its 
erection. Nothing, however, was done during the 
year, and the board which met in 1854 was still 
discussing the location and size of the contem- 
plated building. Meanwhile, the need of an addi- 
tional dormitory seemed urgent, the original three- 
story brick dormitory not being sufficient for both 
sexes. For a time the young ladies were provided 
for in a building rented for the purpose, while the 
young men occupied the brick dormitory. Later 
the young men occupied the third story of the 
brick dormitory, while the young women occupied 
the second story of the same building. This was 
not a satisfactory arrangement, and was never de- 
signed to be permanent. In January, 1854, Mr. 
Jacob Saum, a gentleman in the bounds of the 
Miami Conference, gave $1,600 to be applied in 
erecting a dormitory, and by the opening of the 
college year, 1855, Saum Hall (now Science 
Hall), so named in honor of the chief contributor, 
was in readiness and was assigned to the young 
men, while the original dormitory was henceforth, 
until torn down in 1871, exclusively occupied by 
the young women. The cost of Saum Hall, includ- 
ing the lot, was $6,000. 

105 



History of Otterbein University 

At the meeting of the board in June, 1854, the 
agents reported $10,500 in cash and subscriptions 
secured, and the erection of the new main building 
was definitely determined upon. The debt at this 
time was reported as $2,513. In order to' provide 
the money needed to erect the new building, pay 
the debt, and meet deficits incurred in carrying 
forward the work of the college, it was resolved 
that $40,000 be secured for Otterbein University, 
pledges to be taken on the condition that $40,000, 
inclusive of the $10,500 pledges now on hand, be 
secured before the pledges become due. At the 
meeting of the board in June, 1855, the agents re- 
ported the sum of $19,148.60 secured during the 
year on the $40,000 plan. This was no great sum, 
surely, but it was altogether the largest sum, up to 
that time, that had ever been secured for any 
enterprise of the Church in a single year. Mean- 
while the new college-building was begun, and 
proved a very tedious and costly undertaking, and, 
in fact, never was completed, being still in an 
unfinished condition when it was destroyed by fire 
in January, 1870. At the meeting of the board in 
1856, the agents announced that the sum of $40,- 
500 was secured on the $40,000 plan, and the first 
considerable financial undertaking for the college 
was proclaimed a success, and naturally was hailed 
with no little satisfaction by the Church, espe- 
cially in the bounds of the eight conferences at the 
time cooperating with the college. The announce- 
ment, however, while true in form, was very mis- 
leading in fact. As the $40,000 was not due until 
the full sum was pledged, no part, of it was avail- 

106 



Early Financial Struggles 

able to pay the expense of agencies while securing 
the pledges. This expense, together with deficits 
in carrying forward the regular work of the col- 
lege, caused the debt to increase rapidly during 
the very period in which this $40,000 plan was 
carried through to success. 

As already stated, the debt in 1854, when the 
$40,000 plan was adopted, was $2,513. In 1855 
it had grown to $3,714, and in June, 1856, when 
the success of the $40,000 plan was announced, it 
had grown to $9,416, and it became very plain to 
the members of the board that the plan which, in 
their inexperience, they had fondly hoped would 
pay all the debt, as well as pay for the new colleger 
building, which was now in process of erection, 
would fail to do so, and so the board set about de- 
vising a new plan of relief. An endowment plan, 
as it was called, by the sale of scholarships, was 
submitted to the board by the executive committee, 
which, after consideration and amendment, was 
approved in its general features and referred back 
to the executive committee to perfect and publish 
it in the Religious Telescope. Two traveling 
agents were elected by the board, and the executive 
committee was authorized to employ other agents, 
if thought necessary, in the work of selling schol- 
arships. As this so-called endowment plan con- 
nects with one of the severest financial crises 
through which the institution has been called to 
pass in the past sixty years, a brief account of it 
is here given. The plan, as it appeared in the 
catalogues from 1857 to 1860, provided for four 
classes of scholarships, of which the first was per- 

107 



History of Otterbein University 

petual and the remaining three classes covered 
periods of eighteen, eight, and four years respec- 
tively. The perpetual scholarships were sold at 
one hundred dollars and the other three classes 
at fifty, thirty, and twenty dollars respectively. 
These scholarships admitted one student at a 
time for the period named, free of tuition. 
They were called endowment scholarships because 
only the interest on the money realized from their 
sale was to be used in carrying forward the work 
of the university. The plan provided for the sale 
of $75,000 worth. They were sold upon notes not 
payable until the sales reached $75,000, when, 
upon payment of the notes, the scholarships be- 
came available for use. 

It is not important to criticise the plan further 
than perhaps to say that they were sold at a ruin- 
ously low price. The theory was that a large num- 
ber of the scholarships would not be used during 
any given year, while the university would have 
the revenue from the full $75,000 every year; but 
as the scholarships were negotiable, it is plain that 
the plan would open the doors of the university 
to practically all students free of tuition, while the 
university would have only the income from the 
$75,000 to reimburse it for the loss of tuition, 
probably between four and five thousand dollars 
per year, a sum entirely inadequate. So it was 
doubtless well for the university, though it was 
thought a great calamity at the time, that the plan 
was wrecked after all the scholarships had been 
sold, and that, except in a small way, the college 
was never called upon to> meet the burden of re- 

108 



Early Financial Struggles 

sponsibility the plan imposed, as will appear in the 
succeeding chapter. The university found quite 
burden enough in the labor required and the ex- 
pense incurred in the sale of the scholarships. It 
required three years to reach the $75,000 stipu- 
lated in the plan, and for a portion of the time as 
many as four agents were employed in making the 
sales and managing the other finances of the col- 
lege, the whole expense of which had to be met 
from other sources than the endowment plan. 
Thus it happened that the debt, which in 1856 
was reported at $9,416, in 1857 had risen to 
$12,280.97, and the financial situation seemed, at 
least to some of the trustees, to assume an alarm- 
ing aspect. It had become plain that neither the 
success of the $40,000 plan nor the scholarship 
plan would afford adequate relief. So far as the 
sale of scholarships was concerned, the results of 
the first year's effort were thought quite satisfac- 
tory. The agents in the field made sales as fol- 
lows: Eev. Peter Tabler, $8,370 worth; Rev. 
Wm. Hanby, $8,740 worth; Eev. L. Davis, 
$15,580 worth, and Eev. A. Winter, employed for 
only part of the year, $4,570 worth, making an 
aggregate of $37,160 worth, or very nearly one- 
half of the entire $75,000 worth. But already 
nearly one-half of the $40,000 had been collected 
and used, and but little more than the foundation 
of the new college-building had been put in, and 
yet the debt had increased to $12,280.97. Some- 
thing more must be done to provide money for the 
college or failure was inevitable. So the board 
decided to ask the Church in the cooperating con- 

109 



History of Otterbein University 

ferences for $60,000 in donation. Revs. Wm. 
Slaughter and J. B. Resler were appointed agents 
to prosecute this $60,000 plan. So, with the sale of 
scholarships not yet half completed, the agents of 
the college found themselves burdened with the 
additional labor of securing $60,000 in donations. 
But for the fact that at this same session of the 
board in 1857 action was taken which resulted in 
the transfer of Mt Pleasant College, Pennsyl- 
vania, which brought to the college the cooperation 
and support of five new conferences in the East, 
some of them among the strongest, and wealthiest 
in the Church, the effort would indeed have 
seemed hopeless. That the board did not feel hope- 
less is indicated by the following resolution, 
adopted before adjournment: 

"Resolved, That it is the earnest purpose of this 
board to make Otterbein University equal in all 
respects, and, if possible, superior to any other 
similar institution in the West, and that we assure 
the faculty that at the earliest day possible they 
shall occupy a position equal to those of other in- 
stitutions. " 

The fact, however, that the agents had given 
assurance in their efforts to secure the $40,000, 
which was carried to success in 1856, that this 
sum would be sufficient to pay the debt of the col- 
lege and erect the new building, when so soon an 
additional sum of $60,000 was asked, excited 
earnest inquiry as to what had become of the 
$40,000. Indeed, the agents, who, in their inexpe- 
rience, had no doubt innocently given this assur- 
ance, found it difficult to convince even some of the 

110 



Early Financial Struggles 

trustees that there had not been incompetence or 
crookedness, or both. To the hardships of the posi- 
tion of the agents, thankless and slavish at best, 
was added the cruel suggestion that they had been 
unfaithful in the appropriation of funds. In a 
very few instances agents had kept their accounts 
in so careless and bungling a manner that they 
could not vindicate their integrity in as clear a 
manner as was desirable, but> with the rarest 
exceptions, the agents, when questioned, could 
account satisfactorily for every dollar, and in a 
way that put their integrity, if not always their 
business judgment and skill, beyond question. 
The board at its session in 1857, in deciding to 
appeal to the Church for $60,000 more, deemed it 
important, in order to prevent misapprehensions 
and answer inquiries, that there be given the clear- 
est possible statement of the financial condition of 
the college. Accordingly, Rev. Wffi. Hanby was 
appointed to prepare such statement for publica- 
tion. This statement appears in the catalogue for 
1857, giving an extended report of all moneys re- 
ceived and expended. The statement answered 
clearly the question as to what had become of the 
$40,000 announced secured at the board meeting 
in 1856. It disclosed the fact that nearly $18,000, 
or nearly one-half of the entire amount, was still 
uncollected, and that a heavy per cent, of it prob- 
ably never could be collected. The statement also 
clearly set forth what had been done with the 
$22,000 collected. The statement seemed to sat- 
isfy the Church generally, and while it did not 
make the task of the agents easy, it opened the way 

ill 



History of Otterbein University 

for them and enabled them to go forward in their 
work with some prospect of success. The attempt, 
however, to carry forward the scholarship and 
donation plans at the same time, proved very bur- 
densome. It was a dark time and a hard struggle, 
during which sometimes the hopes of the stoutest 
hearted grew faint. The very desperation of the 
situation, however, seemed to inspire courage and 
nerve to determination. At times the pressure for 
money was so urgent that it was proposed to sus- 
pend the sale of scholarships and direct all efforts 
to the solicitation of donations. At other times it 
was ordered that the work on the new college- 
building be carried forward no faster than money 
could be collected for this purpose. At still other 
times agents were dispatched to the East, if pos- 
sible to borrow the money needed to meet the more 
pressing obligations of the college. Suffice it to 
say that by the favor of a kind providence the 
agents were enabled to avert the threatened bank- 
ruptcy and carry the college safely through per- 
haps the darkest crisis in its history. 



112 




Rev. HENRY GARST, D. D. 
Connected with the Faculty of Otterbein University since 1869 




SOLOMON KEISTER 
A Stanch Friend of the College from its Beginning 



Experiments Made and Failures 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Failure of the Manual-Labor Experiment — Wreck of the 
Scholarship Endowment Plan. 

Eo history of Otterbein University would be 
complete without some account of the effort to con- 
nect with it a system of manual labor. The idea 
of such a system with institutions of higher educa- 
tion was not original with the founder of Otter- 
bein University. In the State of New York, the 
Onieda Institute, and in the State of Ohio, West- 
ern Reserve College, Marietta College, Lane The- 
ological Seminary, and Oberlin College, all had 
made attempts of this kind before the founding of 
Otterbein University. Perhaps the most deter- 
mined effort, and in circumstances the most favor- 
able to success, had been made at Oberlin College, 
but here, as elsewhere, the attempt had already 
substantially failed at the time the United Breth- 
ren fathers entered upon the educational work. It 
may be a matter of wonder to some that an attempt 
which had so generally failed elsewhere should be 
made in Otterbein University. The explanation 
is not far to seek. As already stated, the members 
of the United Brethren Church, at the time, were 
largely rural and engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
They knew far more about manual labor than 
higher education. Manual labor seemed to them 
just about the most practicable thing in the world, 
and in their very limited knowledge of the condi- 

8 113 



History of Otterbein University 

tions of carrying forward the educational work 
successfully, it is not strange that they failed to 
appreciate the difficulties of carrying forward the 
two together. The failures which had occurred 
along this line were not denied, but they were 
attributed to the disinclination of professors and 
students to work, and not to any inherent difficul- 
ties in the problem itself. They seemed to believe 
that this disinclination to labor either did not exist 
among a people trained to toil as were the United 
Brethren, or, if it did exist, the right thing to do 
was to antagonize it sharply and eradicate it if 
possible, and what better place could there be for 
such reformatory work, they seemed to reason, 
than in a college ? From the very beginning, there- 
fore, there was a pretty earnest demand for a sys- 
tem of manual labor in connection with Otterbein 
University. The demand was urged mainly on 
two grounds, the health of all students, and as a 
source of revenue to poor students. On the first 
ground much was made of the deleterious effects of 
too intense and too continuous a devotion to study, 
and under the second it was contended that, since 
the majority of the youth of the Church were poor, 
there was no possibility for them to obtain a colle- 
giate education except by offering them the oppor- 
tunity of earning by manual labor a part or all the 
money needed. 

It will be observed that these grounds for 
manual labor might be very plausibly urged 
without touching the question of practicabil- 
ity in connection with a college, and this was 
largely done. If any one had the temerity to sug- 

114 



Experiments Made and Failures 

gest some of the difficulties to be encountered in 
maintaining a system of manual labor in a college, 
he was promptly accused of being hostile to 
manual labor as such, an accusation which was apt 
to find rather ready acceptance in the Church, and 
had a tendency to hush up objections, and so the 
advocates of a manual-labor system, so far as the 
argument was concerned, had things very much 
their own way. When the charter was procured in 
1849, a matter which had been delayed for two 
years, because colleges were required to be worth 
at least ten thousand dollars in order to procure a 
charter, a clause was inserted authorizing the trus- 
tees to purchase lands, mechanical implements, 
etc., wherewith to connect the manual-labor system 
with the college. Could the strife, alienation, 
division, and loss to which this popular and appar- 
ently harmless clause would afterwards lead have 
been foreseen, we may be sure that it would never 
have been inserted ; but there it was put, doubt- 
less with the sincerest purposes and best motives. 
From time to time references were made, in the 
Religious Telescope and in the sessions of the 
board, to the authorized manual-labor system, but 
aside from assurances from the agents and occa- 
sional resolutions by the board of trustees, little 
was done for a number of years. In time the ear- 
nest champions of a system of manual labor in the 
college grew impatient, and some of them became 
suspicious that there was no sincere purpose to 
connect such a system with the college, and began 
to press their claims with great determination. At 
the session of the board in June, 1854, the subject 

115 



History of Otterbein University 

received large attention, and as a result the follow- 
ing action was taken : 

"1. That, in view of all the circumstances, we 
think it best to adopt immediately an effective sys- 
tem of manual labor that shall require the per- 
formance of labor daily by all in attendance in this 
institution; this regulation to take effect as soon 
as an executive committee, hereafter to be ap- 
pointed, shall be able to furnish employment; 
provided, however, that nothing in this act shall 
be so construed as to prevent the executive com- 
mittee excusing persons of feeble health, and also 
those whose stay may be very temporary, and who 
may therefore desire to study all the time; also, 
other cases not now foreseen. 

"2. That of the funds received into the treas- 
ury such an amount as may be thought necessary 
be appropriated by the executive committee for the 
perfecting of the system. 

"3. That the executive committee be author- 
ized to purchase a sufficient amount of real estate 
and to make such other arrangements as shall be 
necessary to perfect the plans as soon as the 
finances will permit. 

"4. That the resident agent shall take charge 
of the labor department, subject to the direction of 
the executive committee." 

In accordance with this somewhat carefully- 
guarded action of the board, the executive com- 
mittee purchased eighteen acres of land just 
north of Home Street and west of Grove Street, 
which came to be known as the college garden. 

116 



Experiments Made and Failures 

On this plat of ground the students, for a number 
of years, performed considerable labor, raising In- 
dian corn, broom-corn, graden vegetables, and 
later maintaining a nursery upon part of the 
ground. For several years this labor was per- 
formed under the direction of a manual-labor 
agent. Rev. Abram Winter and C. A. Redding, 
Esq., served as such agents for a time. The results 
of the effort carried forward in this small way 
were not satisfactory. The reports of the agents 
constantly indicated financial loss, which, in the 
straitened condition of the college, was a serious 
matter. The champions of manual labor, however, 
were very determined, and under the leadership of 
Rev. John Lawrence, editor of the Religious Tele- 
scope, Rev. Henry Kumler, Jr., of the Miami 
Conference, and, later, of Dr. I. A. Coons, Esq., 
of Dayton, Ohio, the continuance of the manual- 
labor experiment was insisted upon. At the ses- 
sion of the board in 1855 it was ordered that one- 
third of the money realized from the forty-thou- 
sand-dollar plan, of which some account was given 
in a previous chapter, should be devoted to the sup- 
port of the manual-labor department. In 1856 a 
small farm of fifty-two acres, adjoining Wester- 
ville on the east, was purchased by the executive 
committee, an act which greatly pleased the advo- 
cates of manual labor. At the session of the board 
in 1856 the scholarship-endowment plan, pre- 
viously mentioned, was adopted, and agents were 
elected and sent into the field to sell scholarships. 
Up to this time every official action relating to 
manual labor was in favor of connecting such a 

117 



History of Otterbein University 

system with the college. It is not strange, there- 
fore, that the agents in the field selling scholar- 
ships gave assurances that the institution was to be 
a manual-labor college, and as this idea was very 
popular in the Church, it serves, in part at least, 
to explain the rather rapid sale of scholarships. In 
contrast, however, with this favorable action of the 
board of trustees and these confident assurances by 
the agents, stood the fact that very little was done 
in a practical way to establish a system of manual 
labor in Otterbein University. No students were 
required to labor. To a limited extent students 
who wished could, during a portion of the year, 
obtain work in the college garden. The catalogue 
of 1857, representing a period when manual labor 
was in the best condition it ever attained in the 
college, has only this to say on the subject: "The 
college premises which contain the buildings con- 
sist of nine acres. A little north of this is the col- 
lege garden, containing eighteen acres in good 
cultivation, the work being almost all done by stu- 
dents. East of the town, and easy of access, is the 
college farm, containing fifty-two acres, which is 
being brought under cultivation as rapidly as pos- 
sible. 

"It is the purpose of the managers of the uni- 
versity to give the poor but industrious students 
an opportunity of acquiring a thorough education, 
with the least draft possible upon the health and 
purse." 

On a subsequent page appear these words: 
"Arrangements are such that young men who wish 
can, without difficulty, procure work, so that by 

118 



Experiments Made and Failures 

their labor they can pay a considerable part of 
their expenses. The recitations will be so arranged 
that the greater part of the afternoon may be de- 
voted to manual labor." 

It is not strange that this was not satisfactory 
to the advocates of a manual-labor system. What 
they demanded was an institution in which 
manual labor should form an essential and re- 
quired part ; in which professors and students 
should be required to perform labor with the same 
regularity with which they studied and attended 
recitations. The editor of the Religious Telescope, 
John Lawrence, would occasionally voice the dis- 
satisfaction felt by the friends of a manual-labor 
college, by a serio-comic criticism of what was 
done in this line. Soon after the adjournment of 
the board of trustees in 1856, a lengthy article, 
signed "Miami," appeared in the Telescope, in 
which the managers of the college were sharply 
attacked and severely criticised for what was char- 
acterized as their bad faith in regard to manual 
labor. When the managers of the college com- 
plained to the editor for publishing such an 
article, he replied in the following characteristic 
editorial : 

"We have been slightly censured for the admis- 
sion of an article on Otterbein University into the 
Telescope from the pen of an anonymous corres- 
pondent, who styles himself 'Miami.' By way of 
explanation and defense, we would beg leave to say 
that we entirely agree with 'Miami' in the convic- 
tion that no determined purpose has yet mani- 
fested itself on the part of the executive com- 

119 



History of Otterbein University 

mittee at Westerville to make that school a man- 
ual-labor school. It may be that such a determin- 
ation exists, but to our mind it is as clear as a 
sunbeam that a settled purpose exists to discard 
it, and finally ignore the whole idea of manual 
labor. In this we may be entirely mistaken. 

"Now, understand we are heartily in favor of 
making Otterbein University a first-class college 
without the manual-labor system attached, if it 
must be so. Our heart is in that school. We were 
its ardent friend when it was a pitiful and almost 
contemptible starveling, and now that it has 
attained a vigorous youth and is looking forward 
with high hopes to a noble manhood, we have no 
thought of giving it the cold shoulder, (which to 
the school would be a small matter,) even though 
our favorite idea of manual labor should be wholly 
discarded. Having said this much, we invite 
attention to Eev. W. Slaughter's reply to 'Miami' 
on our fourth page." 

The public controversy thus begun on the sub- 
ject of manual labor in Otterbein University was 
continued in the Religious Telescope, and at the 
sessions of the conferences cooperating, with vary- 
ing intensity for several years, greatly to the in- 
jury of the college. The writer signing himself 
"Miami," after several articles, discarded his pseu- 
donym and thereafter signed his own proper name, 
I. A. Coons, a physician of Dayton, Ohio. The 
doctor was supported in his arraignment of the 
managers of the college mainly by J. Lawrence 
and Henry Kumler, Jr. The defense was con- 
ducted chiefly by W. Slaughter, Wm. Hanby, and 

120 



Experiments Made and Failures 

Jonathan Weaver, all of whom announced them- 
selves as in favor of a manual-labor system in com 
nection with the college. In January, 18 5 7, when 
the effort to secure the $75,000 scholarship endow- 
ment was at its height, Editor Lawrence demanded 
in the Telescope a guarantee that there should he at 
least one professor of manual labor supported by 
this endowment fund. The executive committee 
promptly responded by announcing itself in favor 
of such guarantee, and the board, which met in 
June following, pledged that there should be a pro- 
fessor of manual labor, and the agents used this 
pledge as an inducement to sell scholarships. Such 
demands for guarantees and pledges reflected the 
distrust felt by those who made them, and division 
of opinion and controversy continued. It reached 
its culmination at the meeting of the board in 
1858. A strong committee, consisting of one from 
each of the eleven conferences represented, was 
appointed. The members of the committee were 
I. A. Coons, E. Stutts, H. B. Winton, Abram 
Miller, Alex. Biddle, W. S. Titus, J. B. Kesler, 
J. Phillip Bishop, J. W. Perry, A. Sherk, and 
Jonathan Weaver. This committee failed to agree, 
some insisting that manual labor should be made 
compulsory, and others contending that it should 
be voluntary. As a result, both a majority and a 
minority report were submitted to the board. The 
majority report is brief, and is as follows : 

"We, the majority of your committee on manual 
labor, beg leave to submit the following report: 
That the farm lying to the east of Westerville and 
the lot containing eighteen acres, be sold and the 

121 



History of Otterbein University 

proceeds be appropriated to the paying of the in- 
debtedness of the college. 

"Respectfully submitted, 

"Alex. Biddle. 
"H. B. Winton. 
"J. B. Resler. 
"J. Weaver. 
"J. W. Perry. 
"J. P. Bishop. 
"A. Miller." 

The minority report is a curiosity in its way, 
but is too long to be presented here. The reader 
must be content with the argument of the report, 
with a few of the fourteen items of which it is 
composed, enough to enable him to judge 
whether its opponents were justified in pro- 
nouncing it visionary and impracticable : 

"The minority of your committee on manual 
labor, report the following : We believe that edu- 
cation is a unit, but for illustration may be divided 
into three parts, and they are important in the 
order named — first, physical ; second, moral ; and, 
third, intellectual. The schools and colleges of to- 
day seem to be almost entirely engrossed in the 
mental interests and training of the youth, while 
they pay but little attention to the physical devel- 
opment. In looking over the past history of this 
school, we find that in morals it has met the warm- 
est anticipations of its friends, and in intellectual 
culture it bears a favorable comparison with other 
institutions; and while it is true that there has 

122 



Experiments Made and Failures 

been something done here in reference to corporal 
labor and health, yet we believe that the friends of 
labor have been greatly disappointed, there seem- 
ing to be much theory, but a lack of practice. 
There is upon the institution's record a by-law re- 
quiring all the students to labor, but it is not 
enforced. It is said there is a healthy sentiment 
here in favor of labor. There is also a healthy 
sentiment in favor of moral and mental training, 
but these are not left alone to the caprice of senti- 
ment, certain rules having been adopted for their 
regulation which must he carried out. Now, as we 
most sincerely believe that physical education, or 
the preservation of the health, is the most impor- 
tant business of life, and as it is the only founda- 
tion upon which we can rear permanently any 
great and good mental structure, we most earnestly 
ask that it may be equally and cordially supported 
in this school with moral and mental teaching, 
both by sentiment and law. 

"Muscular idleness is not only mental debility, 
but sin, and as no man, woman, or child can be 
long a successful scholar, much less a Christian, 
and habitually refuse to labor with his hands, we 
recommend the adoption of the following resolu- 
tions : 

"Resolved, 1. That every student, male and 
female, attending this institution be required to 
perform daily, five days in the week, two hours of 
such labor as may be directed by the proper officer 
of this school, unless prevented by sickness. 

"2. That the college farm, containing fifty-two 
acres, be sold, and the proceeds invested in land of 

123 



History of Otterbein University 

a better quality, containing less moisture, and 
nearer the college, and that thirty-two acres of said 
ground to be divided into one hundred and twenty- 
eight lots, containing one-fourth of an acre each; 
also, that the college garden, containing eighteen 
acres, be divided into seventy-two lots containing 
one^fourth of an acre each, and that the above 
lots be sub-soiled twenty inches deep by the male 
students, this work to be commenced on the first 
Wednesday of October, 1858. 

"3. That one lot, after sub-soiling, be assigned 
to each student, the females to have theirs assigned 
them in the college garden, and as many lots as 
there are students be planted either in goose- 
berries, raspberries, red and white currants, straw- 
berries, osier willows, and dwarf pears; the num- 
ber of lots to be planted with each of the above- 
named fruits to be determined by the executive 
committee. Parts of as many lots as there are stu- 
dents are to be planted in the spring of 1859, and 
continued yearly as directed by the board. Each 
lot may contain a few flowers and ornamental 
shrubs. 

"4. That the professors and teachers of the 
school labor two hours each day, five days in the 
week, putting in their time in the college grounds 
so long as needed, under the direction of the agri- 
cultural professor. 



"14. That any student or teacher refusing to 
comply with the above rules shall be dealt with the 

124 



Experiments Made and Failures 

same as if violating other rules of the institution. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

"I. A. Coons, Chairman." 

It was agreed to consider the minority report 
first, and the battle was fought on the first resolu- 
tion, which made performance of labor compul- 
sory for students, as the fourth made it for pro- 
fessors and teachers. The friends of the minority 
report contended that no system of labor could be 
maintained unless all were required to labor. The 
opposition contended that this would be to intro- 
duce a species of slavery into the college, and that 
it could not be enforced. After heated debate, 
lasting an entire day and until late at night in an 
evening session, the first resolution was defeated 
by a yea and nay vote of nine to ten. The support- 
ers of the minority report then lost interest in the 
remainder of the report, and a motion to indefinite- 
ly postpone was promptly made and carried, and 
the board then adjourned for the day. Before final 
adjournment the board voted to establish a chair of 
natural science and scientific agriculture and hor- 
ticulture, and elected Thomas McFadden, M. D., 
to this chair. The board also instructed the execu- 
tive committee to sell the college farm and devote 
the proceeds to the support of the manual-labor de- 
partment. This course did not conciliate the 
advocates of a compulsory system, as was hoped. 
Editor Lawrence, in an editorial in the Telescope, 
proclaimed the abandonment of the manual-labor 
system, and Henry Kumler, Jr., in a communica- 
tion, sharply criticised the board for its course. 

125 



History of Otterbein University 

This provoked replies, and the battle was fought 
over again in the Telescope, and at the sessions of 
the annual conferences, alienating and dividing 
the friends of the university. 

At the session of the board in 1859, the advo- 
cates of a compulsory system made their last de- 
termined effort by submitting to the board an 
alternative proposition either to adopt a thorough- 
going system of compulsory labor, or, in view of 
the financial embarrassments of the school and the 
difficulties attending any system of labor, to dis- 
connect it entirely from the institution. The 
board refused to do either, but left matters as it 
had fixed them at the previous session of the board, 
and after perhaps the stormiest session in the past 
sixty years, finally adjourned at twenty minutes 
before two o'clock in the morning, June 24, 1859. 
The course of the board was again made the sub- 
ject of attack and sharp criticism, and the man- 
agers were accused of swindling in securing 
$40,000 of donations and in selling $75,000 worth 
of scholarship endowment upon the assurance that 
there should be a manual-labor system connected 
with the institution. 

It so happened that the board of 1859, whose 
attitude on the manual-labor system was thus 
assailed, was the board at whose sessions the suc- 
cess of the scholarship endowment was announced, 
over $76,000 worth of scholarships having been 
sold after three years of labor and an outlay of 
probably $8,000. The scholarships were sold upon 
the condition that they were not to be paid for 
until the amount sold should reach $75,000. The 

126 



Experiments Made and Failures 

immediate task before the agents of the college, 
therefore, was to deliver to purchasers scholarship 
certificates and secure payment, either in cash or 
well-secured notes. It was in connection with this 
task that the dissatisfaction and distrust excited 
by the controversy about the manual-labor system 
was brought to bear against the college. Many 
who had purchased scholarships refused to accept 
certificates or make payment for them, claiming 
that the condition upon which they purchased 
them, that the institution should be a manual-labor 
college, was not met. In some places the pur- 
chasers held meetings and resolved to stand to- 
gether in resisting payment. So, after a year's 
costly effort to conciliate purchasers and secure 
payment for scholarships, so many refused that it 
seriously impaired the $75,000 basis, which was 
the least that was thought to be safe and practi- 
cable for the college; and at the session of the 
board in 1860 the entire abandonment of the schol- 
arship endowment was seriously discussed, and the 
agents were directed to propose to all refusing to 
pay for scholarships to' settle by accepting, in- 
stead, a donation of the whole or the half of the 
price of the scholarships. In this way enough 
money was realized to indemnify the college, at 
least in part, for its heavy outlay in selling scholar- 
ships, but the college was left without endowment, 
and it is a marvel it was not financially ruined. 
Before these scholarships were adjusted, the col- 
lege was glad to surrender the notes taken without 
consideration, and even, in some cases, purchased 
back scholarships which had been paid for, to pro- 

127 



History of Otterbein University 

tect itself against their use. A few are still in ex- 
istence and the college has never refused to honor 
them, though to do so has always been a hardship, 
relieved somewhat by raising the incidental por- 
tion of the fees of the college to a disproportionate 
figure. The manual-labor system, which may be 
credited with having dragged this scholarship en- 
dowment to ruin, itself failed and with the board 
which met in 1861 ceased to be a source of irri- 
tation and controversy or to receive further con- 
sideration. 

It will be a pleasant relief to the reader, after 
this account of a very troubled period of strife, 
struggle, and storm in the financial management 
and fortune of Otterbein University, to be in- 
formed that in its internal condition and educa- 
tional work proper the institution, during this 
same period was really prospering and growing 
rapidly. In attendance the university advanced 
from 124 in 1855 to 250 in 1858, or nearly 
doubled in three years, accounted for in part but 
not wholly by the accession of students from Mt. 
Pleasant College, Pennsylvania, and the increase 
of cooperating territory in 1857, noted in a pre- 
vious chapter. 



128 




JOHN E. GU FINER 

Professor of Greek for Thirty-one Years and Member of the 
Faculty for Thirty-eight Years 




Mrs. CAROLINE MERCHANT 
Qf the Merchant Chair Qf Physics and Chemistry 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 



CHAPTER IX. 

Otterbein University — Slavery — The War of the Rebellion. 

In 1847, when Otterbein University was 
founded, slavery in all its strength still existed in 
the Southern States of the Union. Among the 
early organizations to array themselves against 
this so-called domestic institution, was the Church 
of the United Brethren in Christ. The General 
Conference of 1821, more than forty years before 
the abolition of slavery, and twenty-six years be- 
fore the founding of Otterbein University, took 
very emphatic action against slavery. A some- 
what literal translation of the German, in which 
the action of this early conference is recorded, is 
as follows : 

"Resolved, That all slavery, in every sense of 
the word, be totally prohibited and in no way tol- 
erated in our Church. Should some be found 
therein, or others apply to be admitted as mem- 
bers, who hold slaves, they can neither remain 
members nor be received as such, unless they set 
free such slaves, where the laws of the State allow 
it, or leave it to the quarterly conference to decide* 
how long such slaves shall serve their master or an- 
other until the master may realize the cost of pur- 
chase or of rearing. But in no case is it allowed a 
member of our Church to sell a slave. 

9 129 



History of Otterbein University 

"Resolved,, That if any member of the Church 
shall openly transgress, he shall be publicly repri- 
manded, and if he does not humble himself, he 
shall be publicly expelled from the Church." 

When it is remembered that a large proportion 
of the members of the Church at this early date 
were citizens of the slave States of Maryland and 
Virginia, this radical action is a little remark- 
able, but accounts for the fact that when the 
Church founded its first college it became at once 
a center of anti-slavery sentiment and agitation. 
At the time the college was founded the great 
Methodist Episcopal Church had already been rent 
asunder by division of opinion upon the question 
of slavery, and other churches were much dis- 
tracted by differences of opinion and angry con- 
troversies upon this burning question; but the 
United Brethren Church has always been so over- 
whelmingly anti-slavery in sentiment and practice 
that she has had little trouble and no division on 
account of slavery. That such a Church when it 
came to found Otterbein University should throw 
open its doors to black and white alike is just what 
we should expect and just what was done. 

Oberlin is the only college which preceded Otter- 
bein University in receiving persons of color as stu- 
dents, and it is interesting to note the struggle 
which such admission cost at Oberlin and the mat- 
ter-of-course way in which it was done at Otter- 
bein University. The question was thrust upon 
the attention of the managers of Oberlin College 
by the revolt of the students of Lane Seminary, an 
institution located at Walnut Hills near Cincin- 

130 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

nati, Ohio. This revolt was produced by the trus- 
tees of Lane Seminary during the vacation in 
1834, forbidding the students to discuss the sub- 
ject of slavery. There had been a very earnest 
discussion of the question during the year preced- 
ing ; at one time there was a continuous discussion 
during eighteen successive evenings in the chapel 
of the seminary, which resulted in the stu- 
dents taking a firm stand quite unanimously 
against slavery. Since Lane Seminary was situ- 
ated on the border of the slave State of Kentucky, 
the debate of its students upon this question pro- 
duced great excitement, which alarmed the trus- 
tees, and a meeting of the board was called, which 
took action to prohibit all discussion of the ques- 
tion. The board also notified Professor John 
Morgan, who was spending his vacation in the 
East and who had manifested his sympathy with 
the students in their discussions and conclusions 
upon the question, that his services were no longer 
required. Instead of allaying excitement, this 
action tended to intensify it. When the students 
returned and learned of the action of the trustees, 
fully three^fourths of them asked for letters of 
honorable dismissal and severed their connection 
with the institution. For a time they occupied a 
building tendered them by Mr. James Ludlow, 
near Cincinnati, and prosecuted their studies as 
best they could for about six months. Meanwhile 
Doctor Baily, who afterwards had his press thrown 
into the Ohio Eiver by a pro-slavery mob, and sub- 
sequently published in Washington City the Na- 
tional Era, an able and influential anti-slavery 

131 



History of Otterbein University 

paper, in the columns of which Harriet Beecher 
Stowe's wonderful story, "Uncle Tom's Cabin/' 
first appeared as a serial, delivered to them a 
course of lectures on physiology. Arthur Tappan, 
a wealthy merchant of New York City and a pa- 
rishioner of Kev. Charles G. Finney, learning of 
the action of these students, sent them an offer of, 
five thousand dollars and promised to endow a pro- 
fessorship if they would establish an institution 
under anti-slavery auspices. It was at this junc- 
ture in the month of December, 1834, that Rev. 
J. J. Shipherd, who shares with Rev. Philo P. 
Stewart the honor of founding Oberlin College, 
found his way to Cincinnati, working in the inter- 
est of Oberlin College, established a few years be- 
fore, and learned for the first time of the revolt 
of the Lane Seminary students. He also here be- 
came acquainted with Rev. Asa Mahan, a trustee 
of Lane Seminary, who had opposed the action of 
the board which led to the revolt of the students. 
Rev. Mr. Shipherd regarded his visit to Cincin- 
nati providential and speedily conceived the idea 
of securing the revolting students as an accession 
to Oberlin College. Further, he resolved, if pos- 
sible, to secure Rev. Asa Mahan, Prof. John Mor- 
gan, and Rev. Charles G. Finney as members of 
the Oberlin College faculty, all of which was sub- 
sequently accomplished. Mr. Shipherd wrote to 
the board of trustees of Oberlin, informing them 
of the condition of affairs at Cincinnati and urg- 
ing them to take action to receive students without 
respect to color. When the proposed action be- 
came known it produced great excitement in Ober- 

132 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

lin. Some young ladies declared that if colored 
students were admitted they would leave the col- 
lege and return to their homes even if they had to 
"wade Lake Erie" to accomplish it, So great was 
the excitement that the board of trustees deemed 
it best to hold the meeting for the consideration 
of the question in the neighboring town of Elyria, 
where they met on the first day of January, 1835. 
After an earnest and protracted discussion the fol- 
lowing cautious and non-committal action was 
taken : 

"Whereas, Information has been received 
from Rev. J. J. Shipherd expressing a wish that 
students may be received into this institution irre- 
spective of color, therefore, 

"Resolved, That this board do not feel prepared, 
till they have more definite information on the 
subject, to give a pledge of the course they will 
pursue in regard to the education of the people of 
color, wishing that the institution should be on 
the same ground, in respect to the admission of 
students, with other similar institutions of our 
land." 

It will be seen, therefore, that the board did not 
take the action asked by Rev. J. J. Shipherd in 
regard to admitting persons of color. It did, how- 
ever, comply with his wishes in electing Rev. Asa 
Mahan president and Rev. John Morgan a profes- 
sor of the college. 

Meanwhile, Rev. J. J. Shipherd had gone to 
New York City to prosecute his labors in behalf of 
Oberlin College and there he first learned that the 
board had failed to open the doors of the college 

133 



History of Otterbein University 

to students irrespective of color. It greatly grieved 
and disappointed him, and he wrote a long and 
earnest letter to the board, in which he urged by 
twenty different arguments that the board should 
reconvene and take the action asked. The board 
met again on the ninth of February, 1835, this 
time in Oberlin, at the home of Rev. John Keep, 
the president of the board. At this session the 
question was again earnestly discussed and a pro- 
nounced difference of opinion manifested itself. 
Mrs. Keep was engaged in her domestic duties in 
an adjoining room with a door ajar between, and 
became very much interested in the animated dis- 
cussion she heard going on. Mr. Keep at length 
became fearful that the proposition would be de- 
feated and, stepping to the door, quietly informed 
his wife of his apprehensions. She immediately 
left her domestic duties and hastily sum m oned 
a number of the women of the neighborhood to 
a prayer-meeting in which they earnestly besought 
God to guide the board to a righteous decision. At 
last the debate ceased and the question was put to 
a vote, when the board was found a tie. This threw 
the responsibility of the decision of the momentous 
question upon the chairman. Mr. Keep proved 
equal to the occasion and promptly gave his vote 
in the affirmative, and thus Oberlin College by a 
very narrow margin was thrown open for the re- 
ception of students irrespective of color, and the 
institution was put in position to lead and aid 
in the great struggle against slavery then rapidly 
coming on, and which later resulted in the War of 
the Rebellion and in the utter overthrow of the 

134 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

institution of slavery in the United States. The 
action was not in the simple, direct, and courage- 
ous form proposed by Mr. Shipherd, but as fol- 
lows : 

" Where as, There does exist in our country 
an excitement in respect to our colored popula- 
tion, and fears are entertained that on the one 
hand they will be left unprovided for as to the 
means of a proper education, and on the other 
that they will, in unsuitable numbers, be intro- 
duced into our schools, and thus in effect forced 
into the society of the whites, and the state of pub- 
lic sentiment is such as to require from the board 
some definite expression on the subject, therefore, 

"Resolved, That the education of the people of 
color is a matter of great interest and should be en- 
couraged and sustained in this institution." 

This somewhat ambiguous action could hardly 
be regarded as a hearty invitation to persons of 
color to enter Oberlin College as students, and yet 
it contrasted sharply with the spirit of exclusion 
which prevailed in institutions of learning every- 
where else. The rapid progress of events, how- 
ever, speedily relieved the action of the board of 
all ambiguity and brightened it into a distinct and 
positive policy of admission irrespective of color. 
This was in 1835, twelve years before Otterbein 
University was founded. 

During these twelve intervening years anti- 
slavery sentiment made very substantial progress 
in the North and the Church of the United Breth- 
ren in Christ held a place in the front ranks of 
this advancing reform. When Otterbein Univer- 

1?,5 



History of Otterbein University 

sity was founded in 1847, the doors of almost every 
college in the land were still firmly barred against 
students of color, but in Otterbein University the 
question was not even so much as raised, but it 
was taken for granted that the institution would 
be open impartially to whites and blacks. There 
was no such dread lest the college should be 
thronged unduly with colored students, as at first 
prevailed at Oberlin. At the latter institution this 
dread was voiced by a little boy, a son of a trus- 
tee, who, when at last a solitary colored youth was 
seen entering the town, ran into the house and 
called out, "They're coming, father, they're com- 
ing !" Instead, in Otterbein University, there was 
anxiety because colored students were so slow in 
coming. The board of trustees at its session in 
1854, actually passed a resolution instructing the 
agents and trustees to "secure some colored stu- 
dents to be educated in this college." When col- 
ored youth came they were hailed with gladness 
and cordially welcomed by the authorities of the 
college. A little temporary flurry of opposition on 
the part of a few white students and a letter to the 
board by a prominent and liberal friend of the 
college, criticising the authorities for receiving 
colored students was the sum total of the opposi- 
tion which manifested itself. 

The attendance of colored students has al- 
ways been very small, and much of the time 
there has been none in attendance. A few 
from resident families and a few from Africa, 
brought to this country by missionaries, have con- 
stituted the colored contingent of students. The 

136 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

founding of Wilberforce University at Yellow 
Springs, in Green County of this State, an insti- 
tution designed expressly for the education of col- 
ored youth, seemed to provide adequate facilities 
for those who aspired to obtain an education, and 
to this most preferred to go. Such as came to 
Otterbein, however, have always been received 
upon their merits and courteously treated and ad- 
mitted upon terms of equality in the class-room, in 
the literary societies, and in the Church. The ad- 
vanced position of the college in throwing open its 
doors to students of color for a time led to opposi- 
tion and some persecution abroad. A student of 
the college who had gone out to teach in the winter 
of 1853-54, on stating, in answer to an inquiry, 
that he came from Otterbein University, elicited 
the exclamation, "Oh, that is the college where 
every student is obliged to sign a paper agreeing to 
accept a colored student as a roommate and sleep- 
ing companion !" When informed that there was 
no truth in this statement, the author of the excla- 
mation seemed to hesitate to accept the correction. 
The position of the college with its doors always 
open to students irrespective of color, rendered the 
institution a strong anti-slavery center, and the 
place was visited during the days of slavery, be- 
fore and during the war, by many of the leading 
anti-slavery champions of the country who were 
here sure of an appreciative and sympathetic audi- 
ence while they depicted the evils of slavery. 
Among the champions whose voices were heard 
in Westerville in ante-bellum days may be named 
Salmon P. Chase, Benjamin Wade, Frederick 

137 



History of Otterbein University 

Douglas, Wendell Phillips, Samuel Galloway, and 
many others. When John C. Fremont was nomi- 
nated for the Presidency in 1856, as the represent- 
ative of the rapidly-growing host of those who 
were determined to resist the aggressions of the 
slave power, he found here many ardent support- 
ers. On one occasion during the campaign, a 
prayer-meeting was proposed to ask God for guid- 
ance and help. A question was raised as to 
whether the prayers should he impersonal, or 
whether it would be proper to pray for the election 
of John C. Fremont by name. On this question 
Rev. John O. Bright, an intense anti-slavery man 
and one of the pioneer workers for Otterbein 
University, declared that he wanted John C. Fre- 
mont elected and he proposed to tell the Lord so 
plainly by praying for the election of Fremont by 
name, and thus he did pray. 

Westerville also became known as a station on 
what was called the "Underground Railroad." By 
this was meant a place where fugitive slaves who 
had escaped from their masters in the South could 
depend upon succor and help in their attempt to 
reach Canada, so as to> be beyond the jurisdiction 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, which provided the 
means for their capture and return to their mas- 
ters. The home of Rev. L. Davis, the president 
of the college, was the one usually sought out by 
these flying fugitives, and they never failed of a 
kindly welcome and aid in their flight for freedom. 
The author, having been an inmate of the Davis 
home during the four years immediately preceding 
the War of the Rebellion, had a good opportunity 

138 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

to observe the business transacted in the Under- 
ground Kailroad. Of the passengers who passed 
this station he distinctly remembers a bright mu- 
latto, who stated that he was a house-servant and 
had escaped from his master in Kentucky. He was 
in a state of great alarm, declaring that he had seen 
a handbill posted near Westerville giving a de- 
scription of him and offering a reward of five 
hundred dollars for his capture and return to his 
master. He was quite above the average in intel- 
ligence and could read well, as was not uncommon 
in the case of house-servants. He was weary and 
hungry and yet it was not thought prudent for him 
to tarry long on account of the danger of capture. 
He tarried until dinner was prepared and then 
he sat down to eat, trembling from head to foot. 
The tremulous clatter of his knife and fork upon 
the plate before him, occasioned by his fright, 
can never be forgotten. After partaking of his 
hasty meal and receiving other aid, he was directed 
to a "station" beyond Westerville in the country, 
thought to be a safer place to tarry and rest, and 
he hastened on his way. Whether he succeeded 
in eluding his pursuers and reached Canada and 
freedom is not known. 

When Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the 
Presidency in 1860, he had many sincere and 
earnest supporters in Westerville and in Otterbein 
University. When the War of the Eebellion broke 
out in 1861, the martial spirit manifested itself in 
a very emphatic way in town and college. But 
three small classes had at that time graduated from 
the college — in only two of which were there gen- 

139 



History of Otterbein University 

tlemen. It was not possible, therefore, for the col- 
lege to have much representation in the Union 
armies from the ranks of her graduates. From the 
the ranks, however, of the undergraduate students 
so many went forth as greatly to deplete the classes 
and seriously cut down the aggregate attendance 
of students. The smallest classes, with the single 
exception of the first, went out during and imme- 
diately after the war. It was during this period, 
also, that the only class, besides the first, that had 
no gentlemen in it went forth. 

Commissioner of Soldiers' Claims W. L. Curry, 
of Columbus, Ohio, who himself was a student in 
the university, has gathered the names of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five students of the university 
who served in the Union army. Of these 
there were more than a score of graduates, though 
a number of these graduates completed their 
courses after the war. These students were all 
quite youthful, which will account for the fact 
that none of them reached high rank in the army. 
There were a number of lieutenants and captains, 
but the large majority of them were simply pri- 
vates in the armies East and West, who bore an 
honorable part in many of the great battles of the 
war. Among these soldier-graduates and students 
who since have become widely known in the 
Church, may be named Prof. George A. Funk- 
houser and Professor J. P. Landis of the Union 
Biblical Seminary, S. M. Hippard, Rev. D. Eberly, 
Rev. I. L. Kephart, George H. Bonebrake, A. B. 
Kohr, Jacob Burgner, S. E. Kumler, and others. 
Among those who lost their lives in the conflict 

140 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

may be named A. W. Stonestreet, H. C. Pohlman, 
J. M. Kumler, Jas. M. Clements, and George W. 
Sclirock. 

So far as the conflict of arms is con- 
cerned, while Otterbein University did not bear 
so conspicuous a part as some older and larger col- 
leges, yet, when the newness of the university and 
the number of students are considered, it had a 
surprisingly large number in the army who bore 
an honorable part in the great conflict, and the 
institution will not suffer by comparison with the 
oldest and strongest colleges in the land. So far 
as the conflict of ideas which led up to the war, 
and which during its progress led to the abolition 
of slavery, followed by the reconstruction of the 
Union upon the basis of impartial and universal 
freedom, is concerned, Otterbein University is one 
of the very few institutions which may justly be 
classed among the leaders in the conflict. In 1856, 
there was a song written by a student in Otterbein 
University, which well expresses the sentiment 
against slavery and in favor of freedom and 
human rights, which held sway in the university 
in the years before the war. The song was "Dar- 
ling Nelly Gray," and the student who wrote it 
was Benjamin R. Hanby, a member of the sopho- 
more class. The song struck a popular cord and 
quickly gained very wide popularity, even being 
sung in lands beyond the sea. It was dedicated 
to Miss Cornelia Walker, at the time the teacher 
of music in the university, a daughter of Pro- 
fessor Ralph M. Walker, of whose service in the 
university an account is given in a previous chap- 

141 



History of Otterbein University 

ter. Mr. Charles B. Galbreath, in the Ohio Mag- 
azine for August, 1906, gives the following esti- 
mate of the song : 

"What is said of Foster's songs is true of Han- 
by's first successful composition, 'There is mean- 
ing in the words and beauty in the air.' Indeed, 
we may go> further and aver that the author of 'Old 
Folks at Home,' first though he be among the 
writers of Southern melodies, never wrote verses 
more sweetly simplei, more beautifully and touch- 
ingly suggestive, more sadly pathetic than 'Dar- 
ling Nelly Gray.' Perfect in rhyme and almost 
faultless in rhythm, the words flow on, bearing 
their message directly to the heart. . The tragic 
climax is delicately veiled behind the picture of the 
bondman pouring forth his sorrow for his lost 
lady love. Her vain appeal to the slave- 
driver ; the insult of the heartless, new master ; the 
burdens of the cotton and the cane fields ; her com- 
fortless grief, wild despair, and pitiful decline to 
the merciful release of death — these were too 
awful to find expression in song. We are spared 
the heartrending reality ; even the pain from what 
we see is relieved by the vision of a happy reunion. 
Darling Nelly Gray goes to her cruel f ate — meets 
her lover in heaven." 

Here is the song as it is given in the same mag- 
azine : 

Darling Nelly Gray. 

There 's a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore, 
Where I 've whiled many happy hours away, 

A-sitting and a-singing by the little cottage door, 
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray. 

142 



Experience with Slavery and the Civil War 

Chorus. 

Oh! my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away, 
And I '11 never see my darling any more; 

I am sitting by the river and I 'm weeping all the day, 
For you 've gone from the old Kentucky shore. 

When the moon had climbed the mountain and the 
stars were shining, too, 

Then I 'd take my darling Nelly Gray, 
And we 'd float down the river in my little red canoe, 

While my banjo sweetly I would play. 

One night I went to see her, but "She 's gone!" the 
neighbors say, 
The white man bound her with his chain; 
They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life 
away, 
As she toils in the cotton and the cane. 

My canoe is under water and my banjo is unstrung; 

I 'm tired of living any more; 
My eyes shall look downward and my song shall be 
unsung 

While I stay on the old Kentucky shore. 

My eyes are getting blinded, and I cannot see my way. 

Hark! there 's somebody knocking at the door — 
Oh! I hear the angels calling, and I see my Nelly Gray, 

Farewell to the old Kentucky shore. 

Chorus. 

Oh, my darling Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they 
say 
That they '11 never take you from me any more. 
I 'm a-coming, coming, coming, as the angels clear the 
way, 
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore! 

It is not known just what prompted the writing 
of the song. Perhaps the fact that the atmosphere 
of Otterhein University, at the time it was written, 

143 



History of Otterbein University 

was heavily charged with the sentiment it contains 
and that a sensitive soul and gifted genius like 
Benjamin R. Hanby breathed this atmosphere suf- 
ficiently accounts for the song. It is certain that 
the song was of great service in promoting the 
cause of human freedom and deserves to be classed 
with Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and 
Helper's "Impending Crisis/' in the influence it 
exerted. It is well that among the interesting 
events of the sixtieth anniversary is to be the plac- 
ing of a bronze tablet in appreciative commemo- 
ration of the genius of this gifted son. 

Otterbein University is one of the institutions 
that did not need to shift position to adjust itself 
to the progress of events which culminated in the 
issue of the emancipation proclamation, and the 
overthrow of slavery. From the very first, and 
throughout the great conflict, it maintained the 
position which at last triumphed. This honorable 
record of the university, in one of the most not- 
able conflicts that ever occurred in our country, 
and indeed in the world, cannot but be a matter 
of great satisfaction and just pride to its friends 
through all time. 



144 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 



CHAPTER X. 

Otterbein University and the Temperance Reform — "The 
Westerville Whisky War." 

As upon the question of slavery so upon the 
question of temperance, the attitude of the United 
Brethren Church determined the attitude of Ot- 
terbein University. While not one of the earliest 
Protestant churches organized in this country, it 
was one of the very earliest to assert itself in an 
official way upon the subject of temperance and 
abstinence from intoxicating drinks. As early as 
1814, the year preceding the first General Confer- 
ence, the following action was taken by what was 
known as the Eastern Conference, and inserted in 
the Book of Discipline as the law of the Church : 

"Article II. Every member shall abstain from 
intoxicating drink and use it only on necessity as 
a medicine." 

ISTow when it is remembered how common and 
well nigh universal was the use of intoxicating 
liquor at this early date, it is not a little remark- 
able that such radical and emphatic action should 
be taken by any church, but that it should be taken 
by a body of German ministers representing a 
church composed, at the time, almost wholly of 
Germans, so proverbially slow to take hold of the 
temperance reform, is quite unexampled. With 
a single exception, so far as known, it is the earli- 

10 145 



History of Otterbein University 

est ecclesiastical action on record prohibiting the 
use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. The Gen- 
eral Association of Massachusetts Proper took 
action at its session in 1811 by appointing a com- 
mittee of which Kev. Dr. Worcester was chair- 
man, to draft the constitution of a society whose 
object should be to check the progress of intem- 
perance. The society, however, was not organized 
until 1813, so that it began its work just the year 
before the adoption by the United Brethren 
Church of the action above recited. 

This action of the United Brethren Church was 
followed by that of the General Conference of 
1821, which was evidently aimed at the somewhat 
common practice of farmers in Virginia, Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, to erect distilleries 
on their farms and, in addition to their agricul- 
tural pursuits, engage in the manufacture of 
whisky. The action taken was as follows: 

"Resolved, That neither preacher nor lay mem- 
ber shall be allowed to carry on a distillery; and 
that distillers be requested to willingly cease the 
business ; that the members of the General Confer- 
ence be requested to lay this resolution before the 
several annual conferences ; that it shall then be 
the duty of the preachers to labor against the evils 
of intemperance during the interval between this 
and the next General Conference, when the sub- 
ject shall again be taken up for further consider- 
ation." 

Subsequent events make it evident that the re- 
quest to willingly cease the business of distilling 
liquor was not complied with by all the members 

146 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

of the Church thus engaged, and that among those 
who failed to comply were some ministers and ex- 
horters. Accordingly the General Conference of 
1833 took action especially to prohibit the manu- 
facture and sale of liquors by this class of mem- 
bers. The action is in the words following : 

" Should any exhorter, preacher, or elder, from 
and after the next annual conferences in 1834, be 
engaged in the distilling or vending of ardent 
spirits, he shall, for the first and second offense, 
be accountable to the quarterly or yearly confer- 
ence of which he is a member ; said conference will 
in meekness admonish the offending brother to de- 
sist from the distillation and vending of ardent 
spirits as the case may be; should these friendly 
admonitions fail, and the party continue, and it 
be proven to the satisfaction of the yearly confer- 
ence, if a preacher or elder, or before the quar- 
terly conference, if an exhorter, such preacher, 
elder, or exhorter will for the time not be consid- 
ered a member of the Church." 

That the advance position which the Church 
took and maintained upon the temperance ques- 
tion should meet with opposition among the mem- 
bers of the Church, and even among the ministers^ 
will not appear strange to those who know how 
lax were the notions which generally prevailed 
upon this question at the time, especially among 
the Germans. Many interesting instances might 
be given to show how men engaged in distilling 
and selling liquor were led by the bold and rad- 
ical position of the Church to abandon the busi- 
ness. Ex-Bishop Hanby, in Spayth's "History of 

147 



History of Otterbein University 

the Church," relates that in Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, about the year 1835, a man named 
Abraham Hess was converted during a revival in 
the neighborhood. He was a man of wealth, own- 
ing several farms and a large distillery. Becom- 
ing awakened to the sin and evil of the manu- 
facture and sale of intoxicating liquors, he at once 
dismantled the distillery and converted it into a 
house of worship. On the very spot where the ket- 
tles stood he erected a pulpit, so that thenceforth 
instead of the fiery liquors for the destruction of 
men's bodies and souls there issued forth the 
streams of life.* 

An aged layman of the Church in Butler 
County, Ohio, who, in the sixties, was a parish- 
ioner of the author, gave him in substance, this 
account of himself : "In my younger days, in con- 
nection with my farm, I conducted a distillery, as 
many farmers did in those days. I was a member 
of the United Brethren Church and faithful in 
attendance upon its services; but the preachers 
would frequently render me uncomfortable by 
their radical utterances upon the subject of tem- 
perance ; yet I bore it all. At last they visited me 
and urged and demanded that I cease the business 
of distilling and selling liquor. I considered this 
an unwarrantable interference with my business 
and refused to comply. Then they assured me 
that unless I ceased the business they would be 
obliged to expel me from the Church. I was stub- 
born and told them they could proceed, as I in- 
tended to continue the business. True to their 
warning, they expelled me. This brought me to 

*Berger's History of the United Brethren Church. Pages 250. 251. 

148 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

my senses. I had not before realized the strength 
of my attachment to the Church. I was perfectly 
miserable out of the communion of the Church. 
I hastened to confess my wrong in clinging to my 
distillery instead of the Church and told them that 
the old distillery might go if they would reinstate 
me in the Church. This they joyfully did," said 
the old man, as the tears streamed down his face, 
"and in this Church I expect to spend all the rest 
of my days." And in it he did spend all his days, 
having long since gone to his reward. 

The General Conference of 1841 again took up 
the subject of temperance and the distilling, vend- 
ing, and using of ardent spirits was forbidden to 
all the members of the Church, a position which 
the Church has ever since maintained. This, 
therefore, was the position held by the United 
Brethren Church in 1847 when Otterbein Univer- 
sity was founded, and to this position the insti- 
tution has always been true. While there have 
always been differences of opinion among the mem- 
bers of the faculty and the managers of the col- 
lege as to the most effective way to deal with the 
subject of temperance so as to check and prevent 
the ravages of intemperance, faculty and man- 
agers have always stood together in firm opposi- 
tion to the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage. Perhaps at no time 
has a majority of the faculty believed that to or- 
ganize a party expressly to deal with this ques- 
tion was practically the best plan, yet there have 
been prominent members of the faculty who have 
held this view. Eev. H. A. Thompson, for four- 

149 



History of Otterbein University 

teen years president of the college, was a strict 
party Prohibitionist. He was very prominent in 
the State and national councils of the party and 
was called upon to preside over its conventions at 
times, and in 1880, when Neil Dow was nominated 
for President on the Prohibition ticket, President 
Thompson was nominated for Vice-President. 
The prominence of Westerville and Otterbein Uni- 
versity as a temperance center has attracted to it 
many of the most prominent temperance cham- 
pions of the country, nearly all of whom have 
spoken from Westerville platforms. Among those 
who have thus appeared are John P. St. John, 
Gideon P. Stewart, George W. Bain, Frances E. 
Willard, J. Ellen Poster, Clara B. Hoffman, G. 
P. Macklin, Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, Anna 
Shaw, Belva A. Lockwood, Mary A. Livermore, 
Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and 
many others. 

The position of Otterbein University upon the 
temperance question is well exemplified in the way 
the question has been managed in Westerville dur- 
ing the sixty years that the institution has existed 
in the place. Of course it is not intended to claim 
for the university all the credit for the main- 
tenance of temperance principles in its home 
town, any more than it is intended to admit that 
the institution should bear all the blame for any 
failures to maintain these principles at all times ; 
but it is fair to claim that the university has borne 
a leading part in securing and maintaining the 
best that has been attained upon the subject of 
temperance in the government of the place. The 

150 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

sentiment has always, since the establishment of 
Otterbein University here, been overwhelmingly 
in favor of prohibiting the traffic in intoxicating 
liquors, whatever the character of the laws might 
be. When prohibitory laws were available they 
have been used; when no such laws were avail- 
able the effort has been to maintain prohibition 
by the force of public sentiment. This public 
sentiment has been so pronounced as to render the 
attempt to conduct a saloon in the place difficult, 
hazardous, and unprofitable. 

The first determined effort to establish a saloon 
in Westerville was made during the summer of 
1875. Mr. Henry H. Corbin and his wife, Phy- 
loxena, were the bold pair who thus undertook to 
defy and outrage the public sentiment of the place. 
The wife is mentioned in connection with her hus- 
band because she was not only in fullest accord 
with him in the effort, but was, if possible, the 
more determined and violent of the two. After 
getting the brick cottage on the southeast corner 
of Main and Knox streets in readiness by putting 
in a bar and hanging up a sign, a stock of liquors 
was procured and put into the building at about 
midnight, ready to open up business the next 
morning; but when Mr. Corbin returned to open 
his saloon, he discovered that some unknown per- 
son or persons had entered the building and emp- 
tied the liquor out of the casks and demijohns 
upon the floor, as a kind of foretaste of what was 
to follow. Another stock was promptly procured, 
it was rumored without cost to the saloon-keeper, 
from the liquor dealers in Columbus who had fur- 

151 



History of Otterbein University 

nished the first stock. The law of the State, at 
the time, permitted the establishment of beer, ale, 
and porter houses, and it was under the shelter of 
this law that the attempt to run a saloon in Wester- 
ville was made. The law, however, authorized 
councils to prohibit the sale of liquors to minors, 
to habitual drunkards, and to anybody after a cer- 
tain hour of the night, all of which the town coun- 
cil of Westerville made haste to do, fixing the time 
after which it would be unlawful to sell, at the un- 
usually early hour of eight o'clock. Quite 
naturally the attempt to establish a saloon in 
Westerville produced great excitement and quite 
general indignation among the citizens of the town, 
who took great pride in its temperance record. 
It was to them a startling sight to see the sign, 
"Saloon," for the first time hung up in the town, 
and there was a deep feeling that something em- 
phatic and effective should be promptly done, but 
no one seemed clear as to just what it should be. 
The attempt seemed to them so audacious that 
many of them would not believe that Mr. Corbin 
meant to mar the fair record of the place by estab- 
lishing a saloon in its borders, until they saw the 
sign up and the liquors actually offered for sale. 
Then the saloon became the sole topic of conver- 
sation and there was earnest conference as to what 
it would be best to do to- prevent the calamity, as it 
was well nigh universally regarded. There were 
those who believed that if Mr. Corbin were visited 
and reasoned with and entreated to abandon his 
attempt, he would do so, and the effort was made 
but signally failed, and the citizens became con- 

152 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

vinced that deliverance must come in some other 
way. By a concerted arrangement, on the morn- 
ing of the first day of July, 1875, the fire-bell and 
all the church-bells of the town began to ring vio- 
lently at nine o'clock. The members of the fire 
company came rushing forth and took position in 
front of the saloon, and the citizens, many of 
whom did not understand the occasion of the 
alarm, came rushing to the same place. The sa- 
loon-keeper, probably expecting an assault, came 
forth from his saloon flourishing a revolver in each 
hand and with horrid oaths defied the crowd ; but 
the crowd seemed to have no purpose of violence. 
The demonstration seemed rather to impress Mr. 
Corbin with the strength and unanimity of the 
sentiment against his business, in the hope that he 
might be induced to abandon it. There were songs 
and prayers and speeches. The speeches were by 
the pastors of the churches, professors of the col- 
lege, and others of the most reputable and influ- 
ential citizens of the place, both men and women. 
Some of these addresses were in terms of severe 
denunciation of the business, while others were 
conciliatory and persuasive in their tone, but all 
emphatically against the saloon. At last Mr. Cor- 
bin himself asked and was accorded the privilege 
of addressing the crowd. He plead his rights un- 
der the law; said that he proposed to keep an 
orderly house and sell only pure and wholesome 
liquors. His brief speech plainly indicated that 
he had little appreciation of the terrible character 
of the business in which he was engaged and that 
he cared little for the overwhelming sentiment of 

153 



History of Otterbein University 

the community against it. It revealed the fact, 
too, that if the citizens: of Westerville would pre- 
serve the proud record of the place for temperance, 
morality, and order, they had no holiday task be- 
fore them. So before this meeting in front of the 
saloon dispersed, it appointed what was called a 
Vigilance Committee, composed of the best citi- 
zens of the place', to direct the crusade against the 
saloon. This committee', as soon as appointed, re- 
paired to> the Presbyterian Church for consulta- 
tion and action. Among other things, this com- 
mittee decided, to hold a number of mass meetings 
of the citizens to' intensify and unify the temper- 
ance sentiment of the place; it appointed a com- 
mittee to visit Mr. Corbin and endeavor to per- 
suade him to quit the business ; it also appointed 
a prosecuting committee to take charge of any legal 
measures that might be deemed necessary, and 
asked for funds to carry on these prosecutions, 
which met with a response by the pledge of about 
five thousand dollars for this purpose. It also cir- 
culated what was called a Citizen's Pledge. It was 
in the following words : 

"We, the undersigned citizens of Westerville 
and vicinity, hereby solemnly pledge ourselves that 
we will not patronize any dry-goods merchant, 
groceryman, physician, lawyer, mechanic, or any 
other business man, or employ for any purpose a 
laboring man or hire help that will frequent, en- 
courage, sustain, or furnish aid to a liquor saloon 
in Westerville." 

This pledge secured the signatures of six hun- 
dred and thirty-seven persons. There were prob- 

154 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

ably not a score of voters whose names were not 
upon the pledge. It was printed and freely dis- 
tributed so that everybody's position might be 
known. 

The Vigilance Committee also decided to em- 
ploy only legal and moral means to prevent the 
establishment of a saloon in Westerville. This 
last action became important in connection with 
some prosecutions which followed later. 

While the churches and the college and the cit- 
izens generally, under the direction of the Vigi- 
lance Committee, were holding mass meetings and 
bringing moral and legal means to bear against the 
saloon, some unknown persons began to use, under 
cover of darkness, measures of a violent character. 
On Saturday night following the mass meeting in 
front of the saloon, the windows of the building 
were riddled with stones, and on Monday night 
following, while a temperance mass meeting was 
in progress in the M. E. Church, there was a deaf- 
ening explosion in the saloon building, seriously 
damaging but not wrecking the building. This 
explosion was followed at intervals by two others, 
the last of which so wrecked the building that but 
a single room was left in a condition to be occu- 
pied, and in this the saloonist undertook to con- 
tinue his unwelcome business. 

These acts of lawless violence attracted wide at- 
tention. Newspaper reporters of the principal 
papers of the State, and beyond, visited the scene 
of conflict and furnished extended and highly-col- 
ored accounts to the papers they represented. 
Many of these accounts betrayed sympathy with 

155 



History of Otterbein University 

the saloonist and prejudice against the citizens. 
They represented the latter as a "body of fanatics 
ready to go to any length of lawlessness and vio- 
lence to prevent a saloon in Westerville. The 
truth, however, was that, with rare exceptions, the 
citizens were as earnestly opposed to lawless vio- 
lence as to the saloon, but they were not to be 
turned aside by the misrepresentation and abuse 
to which they were subjected from bringing all 
legal and moral means possible to bear against the 
saloon. They stood firm and went heroically for- 
ward in spite of the slanderous attempt to hold 
them responsible for the lawless efforts of un- 
known parties. 

The committee on prosecutions began its work 
by the arrest of Mr. Corbin for threatening the 
lives of citizens. For this he was put under bonds. 
Upon paying bond he resumed his business and be- 
gan a counter-prosecution by the arrest of seven 
of the most prominent and reputable citizens on 
the charge of inciting a riot. Five of those ar- 
rested were ministers of the gospel, as follows: 
Rev. R. H. Wallace, pastor of the M. E. Church ; 
Rev. H. M. Robertson, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church ; ex-Bishop Wm. Hanby,Rev. J. M. Spang- 
ler, and Rev. W. H. Spencer, the last three all 
members of the United Brethren Church. These 
arrests produced great excitement, and when they 
were taken to Columbus to answer to the charge, 
a delegation of several hundred citizens, men and 
women, went along and thronged the court-room to 
overflowing. The German justice before whom 
they appeared, so plainly revealed his sympathy 

156 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

with the saloonist and his prejudice against the 
accused that they thought it well to waive exami- 
nation, and so they were all bound over to court, 
and the citizens vied with each other in eagerness 
to sign their bonds. Some of the best citizens of 
Columbus manifested their interest in the struggle 
by offering to go on these bonds, but the citizens 
of Westerville quickly more than met the demand, 
and all returned to Westerville determined to con- 
tinue their fight against the saloon. When the 
time for trial came they were subjected to a very 
determined prosecution for four days, more than 
fifty witnesses being examined, but at the end all 
were acquitted. The arrest of these prominent 
and worthy citizens intensified the opposition to 
the saloonist. A close watch was kept upon his 
place of business and when the law was violated 
he was promptly subjected to prosecution. Thus 
he was arrested and fined for selling to minors, to 
habitual drunkards, and for keeping his saloon 
open after eight o'clock in the evening. One of 
the note-worthy trials was on this last charge. On 
it Mr. Corbin demanded and was accorded a jury 
trial. Then in the selection of the jury there was 
an attempt to rule off the jury all who had taken 
any part in the crusade against the saloon by tak- 
ing part in temperance mass meetings, by sub- 
scribing money for the prosecution, by signing the 
citizens' pledge recited on a previous page, etc. A 
series of eleven questions was framed and pro- 
pounded to each proposed juror. Among these 
questions these occurred: 

157 



History of Otterbein University 

"Do you not regard the business of selling beer, 
ale, and porter as being about as criminal as horse 
stealing ? 

"If you knew who did the blowing up of Cor- 
bies saloon would you inform on the guilty person 
or persons without being compelled to do so by 
process of law? 

"Have you not furnished means directly or in- 
directly to carry on the prosecutions against Cor- 
bin in the saloon business ? 

"Have you not signed a pledge that you will 
not patronize or employ any one who patronizes 
or encourages a saloon in Westerville ?" 

The bearing of these questions is readily seen 
and it is plain from the history already given that 
if allowed to bear in the selection of a jury, the 
material for a jury would be very limited indeed, 
and composed wholly of those who were too 
friendly to the business to take any part in the 
effort to prevent a saloon in Westerville. But for 
the fact that the mayor, before whom the trial was 
held, ruled out some of these questions and over- 
ruled objections to persons on account of their 
answers to questions no jury could have been 
found in Westerville. As it was, the effort was so 
difficult and tedious that when the number reached 
ten it was mutually agreed to proceed with that 
number, and the result was a verdict of guilty, 
when the mayor, Mr. J. E. Clark, imposed a fine 
of $25, which, with the costs, amounted to over 
$83 ; upon the failure of the saloonist to* pay which 
his stock of liquors was promptly seized and the 
saloon closed. The case was then appealed to the 

158 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

county court on a writ of error, and after Mr. Cor- 
bin had given security for the costs the liquors 
seized were restored to him and he resumed busi- 
ness. The intense opposition, however, crippled 
the business and rendered it unprofitable. At last 
Mr. Corbin tired of the close surveillance and 
costly prosecutions to which he was subjected, 
abandoned his attempt, and the people of Wester- 
ville had rest for a period of four years. 

In 1879 this same Mr. Corbin, through a real 
estate deal, came into possession of a large frame 
hotel-building standing on a now vacant lot on 
State Street between the Weyant Block and the 
Westerville Bank building. Soon the rumor be- 
came current that Mr. Corbin intended to renew 
the attempt to establish a saloon, a rumor which 
proved to be well founded. The citizens met this 
attempt with the same unflinching opposition with 
which they had met the first, and Otterbein Uni- 
versity became again the rallying center and con- 
trolling motive for resistance to> the attempt. 

For more than thirty years the authorities of 
the college had announced to its friends and 
patrons that there were no saloons in Westerville 
and that parents could send their children to the 
college without exposing them to the temptations 
and demoralizing influence of an open saloon. It 
is strange that any one should so underestimate 
the undying determination to maintain this record 
as to make a second attempt to overcome it with 
any hope of success. Mr. Corbin, however, seems 
to have concluded that by securing a building 
located near valuable property right and left he 

159 



History of Otterbein University 

would be secure against violence, and with this 
fancied security he seemed willing to take his 
chances in again defying the sentiment of the 
town and the law of the State. His assumed 
security against violence, however, speedily proved 
a sad delusion, for on the night of September 15, 
1879, at about two o'clock there was an ex- 
plosion which shook the town with earthquake 
violence, and the citizens, on rushing forth to see 
what had happened, found the Corbin hotel and 
saloon blown to pieces. The disappearance of two 
twenty-six-pound cans of powder from an out- 
house, where, from motives of safety, they were 
stored, revealed the probable means by which the 
deed was accomplished. So violent was the concus- 
sion that the brick wall of what is now the Wester- 
ville Bank building was blown in and the glass in 
windows to the distance of a square and more was 
broken to pieces, including a large plate glass. 
One of the marvels and mysteries of the explosion 
was that none of the thirteen persons in the build- 
ing at the time suffered any injury worth men- 
tioning. So incredible did this appear that it early 
excited the suspicion that the parties were not in 
the building as they claimed, and reputable citi- 
zens still adhere to this theory, although a prosecu- 
tion of Mr. Corbin, at the instance of a detective, 
failed to confirm the suspicion. This act of 
violence by unknown parties, as the violence in the 
contest of 1875, attracted very wide attention, and 
the citizens of Westerville were, for a second time, 
subjected to much unfriendly criticism, especially 
by the secular press of the State and county. 

160 





Rev. DANIEL BENDER 
A Former Financial Agent 



Rev. D. R. MILLER, D. D. 
Endowment Agent for Seven Years 





JOHN HUL1TT 

Who Founded the Hulitt Chaii 

of Philosophy 



GEORGE A. LAMBERT 
.Benefactor for the Lambert Music 
andAxt Hall 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

There seemed no way for the citizens to stop these 
assaults of the press except by yielding the fight 
against the saloon, and this they were determined 
not to do. What in reason could be done to refute 
these accusations was done. The council met and 
promptly offered a reward of $300 for the arrest 
and conviction of the persons who blew up the 
saloon building. At a mass meeting, held on Mon- 
day evening, September 15, the citizens made an 
additional offer of $300 reward, and a mass meet- 
ing held on Tuesday evening, the 16th, took the 
following action : 

"Resolved, That, while we deprecate the attempt 
to establish and maintain a drinking saloon in our 
community as detrimental to the peace, order, and 
prosperity of the town, we at the same time ear- 
nestly condemn all violent and illegal measures 
and such as destroy property and imperil life. 

"Resolved, That we heartily endorse the action 
of the town council in offering a reward of $300 
for the arrest and conviction of the party or parties 
who blew up the Corbin hotel and saloon and dam- 
aged the adjacent property, and we will do what 
we can to ferret out the guilty parties. 

"Henry Gaest, 

"Dr. Abner Andrus, 

"A. K Carson, 

"Committee." 

The prominence and activity of the United 
Brethren Church and Otterbein University in the 
contest against the saloon, made them especial 
objects of criticism and attack, as responsible for 

n 161 



History of Otterbein University 

the violence which, had taken place. It was even 
rumored that some saloon sympathizers expressed 
their malignity by threatening to burn down the 
college-buildings. These threats coming to the 
ears of the insurance companies carrying risks on 
the buildings, it was reported that they seriously 
canvassed the question of canceling their certifi- 
cates on account of the extra hazard. The officials 
saw fit to set themselves right before the public by 
calling a meeting, at which the following resolu- 
tion was adopted : 

"Resolved, That we are not in sympathy with 
the wanton destruction of property for any pur- 
pose, and that whatever may have been the motive 
of the party who blew up the Corbin house and 
saloon, we condemn the act, and hope that every 
legal effort will be used to bring the guilty parties 
to justice. 

"John Haywood, Chairman. 
"Henby Garst, Secretary. " 

Mr. Corbin for a time maintained a defiant 
attitude and declared his purpose to continue the 
saloon business ; but his building was so wrecked 
that it would no longer serve the purpose, and as 
no one was willing to risk the destruction of his 
property by renting it, for saloon purposes, he was 
constrained, by force of necessity, to quit the busi- 
ness, and Westerville was again free. 

Only once since, in the summer of 1889, was 
there a feeble attempt to conduct a saloon in Wes- 
terville. There was a prohibition ordinance in 
force at the time, which was promptly amended to 

162 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

the form which has continued down to the present 
time. Under this ordinance the authorities took 
prompt hold of the matter, and the saloonists 
speedily took their departure. 

From this history it is plain that to keep Wes- 
terville free from saloons during the sixty years 
that it has been a college town, has been no easy 
task. Eternal vigilance and a readiness to meet 
any attempt to establish a saloon with a united 
and determined resistance, bringing into service 
every resource known to the law, have been the 
price of freedom from these baneful institutions. 
Although the victory over the liquor forces, when 
the issue has been squarely joined, has always been 
signal, yet the reactionary influence of greed and 
appetite has been constantly active in favor of the 
traffic in liquor, and it has kept the friends of tem- 
perance constantly on the alert to maintain the 
ordinance and especially to enforce it, Relaxation 
on their part has always been speedily followed by 
evasions and violations of the law, and then these 
evasions and violations were used as arguments for 
the repeal of the prohibition ordinance. These 
arguments here, as elsewhere, have run something 
after this fashion : Prohibition does not prohibit ; 
prohibition ordinances are not and cannot be en- 
forced. In spite of prohibitory ordinances the sale 
of liquor is constantly going on, and there is as 
much drinking and drunkenness with prohibition 
as there would be with open saloons, while all rev- 
enue from the business is lost. Therefore, conclude 
these reasoners, it would be better to repeal pro- 

163 



History of Otterbein University 

hibitory ordinances and secure much-needed rev- 
enue in the taxes paid by those conducting saloons. 

To these contentions the friends of prohibition 
have replied that prohibition does prohibit, if the 
officers of the law are watchful to detect the viola- 
tions of law and prompt to prosecute offenders, 
and this they hold to be the duty of the officers. 
They admit that the officers will be greatly aided 
in enforcing these as well as all other laws, by a 
strong public sentiment in support of such enforce- 
ment, and hence they have held it to be their duty 
to keep the subject in agitation by public and pri- 
vate effort, stimulating the sentiment against the 
traffic to such an extent that the negligence of offi- 
cers will not be tolerated. As to the revenue argu- 
ment in favor of the traffic, their contention has 
been that the additional expense to maintain law 
and order with saloons will far exceed any revenue 
derived from the business, so that, leaving out of 
account the dreadful havoc of the business for 
which no revenue can compensate, the financial 
argument is clearly in favor of prohibition. Thus 
far these and other arguments have held this col- 
lege community true to practical prohibition for 
the past sixty years by an overwhelming majority, 
and while the law has not always been as well en- 
forced and obeyed as could be desired, no thought- 
ful and candid citizen will contend that there has 
been as much drinking and drunkenness as there 
would have been with legalized saloons. 

The experience of this community teaches con- 
vincingly that prohibition, even when imperfectly 
enforced, is a great gain, and that the true remedy 

164 



The Attitude of the College on Temperance 

for any evils under prohibition is not repeal, but 
enforcement of the laws. For sixty years Otterbein 
University has stood as the exponent of sound tem- 
perance principles and has maintained its position 
in the front ranks of the temperance forces of the 
land, not as a partisan or mere theorist, but in a 
practical way joining in the conflict to stay the 
progress and accomplish the overthrow of the giant 
curse of our land and times. 



165 



History of Otterbein University 



CHAPTEE XL 

Literary Societies of Otterbein University — Absence of 
Fraternities. 

Literary societies early assumed a position of 
great interest and importance in Otterbein Uni- 
versity, a position which they have ever since 
maintained. The first literary society was organ- 
ized in 1851, and was called the Otterbein Ly- 
ceum. The following account of it appears in the 
catalogue for 1852: 

"This society was established March 28, 1851. 
It is a permanent society, connected with the in- 
stitution, and is now in a very prosperous condi- 
tion. Arrangements were made at its first forma- 
tion to secure a library as soon as possible, and as 
a result, between three and four hundred volumes 
have been collected. The number of books is now 
rapidly increasing. Since the society has been es- 
tablished, the names of from eighty to one hun- 
dred members have been enrolled. On account of 
its great numbers it is divided into two classes, 
each conducting its meetings in its own room, un- 
der the management of its own officers. Both 
divisions, however, are governed by the same con- 
stitution and by-laws." 

The society did not long continue under this 
name, but adopted the name, Philomathean So- 
ciety, and in the catalogue for 1853 appears this 

account of it : 

166 



Literary Societies Formed 

"This society has just published its constitution 
and a catalogue of its members. It is in a flour- 
ishing condition, and to the diligent student fur- 
nishes important facilities for improvement in 
exercises in elocution and composition ; and, in 
connection with the library, for storing the mind 
with general information." 

The library here referred to is the same as 
that mentioned in connection with the Otterbein 
Lyceum, and there is this account of it in the cat- 
alogue of 1853 : 

"There is a library of several hundred volumes 
belonging to the literary society, and vigorous and 
successful efforts are being made for its enlarge- 
ment. To this library all the members of the so- 
ciety have free access, and other students can have 
access also by the payment of a small fee." 

It will thus be seen that the idea that it is the 
mission of a literary society not simply to drill in 
literary exercises in the form of orations, compo- 
sitions, and debates, and furnish and decorate lit- 
erary halls, but to collect and render accessible to 
the members literary treasures in the form of 
books, dates back to the very beginning in the his- 
tory of literary societies in Otterbein University. 
This idea has been kept prominent ever since, and 
among the most up-to-date and choice selections of 
books accessible to students have been the libraries 
of the literary societies. Several of these societies 
have secured small endowments for their libraries, 
from the proceeds of which additions are each year 
made to these libraries, and some of the best peri- 
odical literature is procured. 

167 



History of Otterbein University 

As has been before stated, the college procured 
a small but not very choice collection of books in 
the purchase of the Blenden Young Men's Sem- 
inary, to which slight additions were made by do- 
nations of books from time to time, but no notice 
is taken in the catalogue of any library except that 
of the literary society until the catalogue of 1858, 
when the college library is reported as containing 
thirteen hundred volumes. 

The Philomathean Society, like its predecessor, 
the Lyceum, on account of the large number of 
members, was conducted for a time in two divis- 
ions, known as No. 1 and No. 2. After a time it 
was deemed best to organize two distinct literary 
societies, and a division of the gentlemen students 
was made, in the main following the line of divis- 
ion of the original Philomathean Society. One of 
these societies took the name, Philorhetian, later 
changed to Philophronean, and the other took the 
former name, Philomathean, and by these names 
they have ever since been known. In 1852 the 
first literary society was organized by the lady 
students, to which they gave the name Philalethean. 
In 1871 the second literary society was organized 
by the ladies, with the name Cleiorhetean. Both the 
division of the members of the original Philo- 
mathean Society into two new societies, and the 
organization of the second society by the ladies, 
resulted in some friction and antagonism, which 
tended to fix definite boundaries between them, 
and doubtless promoted vigor and permanence. 
For more than a decade the literary societies 
organized at this early period had no halls of their 

168 



Literary Societies Formed 

own, but held their sessions in recitation-rooms, the 
Philophronean and Philomathean societies meet- 
ing in the white frame building standing where 
the Christian Association building now stands, 
which was then the main college-building, and the 
Philalethean Society in different recitation-rooms. 
Tn the massive new main building, whose erec- 
tion was begun in 1855, commodious rooms were 
provided for the three literary societies which had 
at that time been organized, the Philophronean, 
the Philomathean, and the Philalethean, but the 
erection of this building was so long delayed, be- 
cause of lack of means, that the societies could not 
begin to fit and furnish them until 1861. They 
then addressed themselves to the task with great 
zeal and liberality, and fitted and furnished them 
in what was, for the time, a really elegant style. 
The societies occupied these halls until the build- 
ing was destroyed by fire in the early morning of 
January 26, 1870. It was a sad day for the 
university, and especially sad for the members of 
the literary societies who, in the smoking ruins, 
beheld the loss of what had cost them years of toil 
and sacrifice. It seemed necessary that the labor- 
ious road they had come be traveled over again. 
They, however, heroically faced the difficult situa- 
tion, and when the present main building was 
erected, in 1870-71, with its four spacious rooms 
provided for literary society halls, they promptly 
addressed themselves to the task, not simply to re- 
trieve the disaster which had befallen them, but to 
fit up and furnish the new halls in a style far su- 
perior to those they had lost. In this work they 

169 



History of Otterbein University 

were joined by the new ladies' society, the Cleio- 
rhetan, which furnished the hall which it now oc- 
cupies. These halls have all been remodeled and re- 
fitted from time to time, until they have been 
brought into their present fine condition by large 
and generous outlay, and compare favorably with 
the best literary halls in the State, the joy and 
pride not simply of their members, but of the en- 
tire university. 

While, as to privileges of membership, an im- 
passable gulf has always been maintained between 
the societies of the gentlemen and the societies of 
the ladies, they have always been friendly and cor- 
dial. The relations of the brother societies 
and of the sister societies to each other, while 
perhaps less cordial, have yet qmte generally been 
friendly, with enough of the spirit of rivalry and 
competition to stimulate each to perform the best 
literary work of which it was capable. Occasion- 
ally, indeed, especially in the somewhat remote 
past, this rivalry may have become unduly and un- 
pleasantly intense. In such cases the question as 
to which society could surpass the other in com- 
fortable assurance of its superiority is one with 
which, happily, the historian need not deal. It 
will suffice to chronicle the fact that these societies 
have all been great factors in the work of the 
university, and have done much to stimu- 
late loyalty and devotion to it. They have estab- 
lished bonds of interest which have become 
controlling motives to induce graduates and other 
members of these socieites to return to the univer- 
sity, especially on commencement occasions, to fird 

170 



Literary Societies Formed 

in their society anniversaries, around their ban- 
quet tables, with their toasts and speeches, and 
songs, the most delightful experiences of their 
lives. What is of far more consequence, these so- 
cieties have, in a practical way, drilled their mem- 
bers to wield skillfully and effectively the powers 
developed in the class-room, and to marshal 
quickly the ideas acquired from teacher and text- 
book, in the great battle of truth against error and 
of right against wrong. 

In the past sixty years there have never been 
any secret societies or fraternities in Otterbein 
University, nor have they ever existed in any of 
the colleges founded by the United Brethren 
Church. This will not appear strange to those 
who are aware of the strong opposition to secret 
societies which prevailed in the Church at the time 
Otterbein University was founded. While this 
opposition has been somewhat modified and ren- 
dered more discriminating, it is still widely prev- 
alent. Many believe that the absence of fraterni- 
ties accounts, in part, at least, for the vigorous life, 
good work, and generally prosperous condition of 
the literary societies in Otterbein University. Cer- 
tain it is that the freedom of the university from 
these orders has kept the university free also from 
the stupid follies, the well-nigh incredible cruel- 
ties, and barbarities, and even fatal tragedies 
which are sometimes connected with the initiation 
ceremonies of the fraternities. To state as an his- 
toric fact that Otterbein University has never had 
fraternities, is to state what a large majority of 
the most distinguished educators, connected in 

171 



History of Otterbein University 

many instances with colleges which long have had 
fraternities would be glad to say of their institu- 
tions. This is made evident in a very interesting 
way by a paper read at the National Educational 
Association, at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1890, by 
Professor J. T. McFarland, of Iowa Wesleyan 
University. The subject discussed by Professor 
McFarland was, "College Fraternities, Their In- 
fluence and Control." The portion of the paper re- 
lating to the character of fraternities and their in- 
fluence in colleges is here given as follows : 

"When at quite a late date I saw from the pub- 
lished program that I had been assigned the task 
of opening the discussion, it occurred to me that I 
would like to know more fully what the status of 
the fraternities is in the colleges of the country; 
what the judgment of college men is concern- 
ing their influence ; and what methods are followed 
in the administrative control of them. To this end 
I sent out a circular of inquiry to the college presi- 
dents of the country, soliciting answers to the fol- 
lowing questions : 

"1. What, if any, fraternities are organized in 
your institution ? 

"2. Are fraternities prohibited in your insti- 
tution ? 

"3. If fraternities have been abolished in your 
school, state by what method, and with what suc- 
cess ? 

"4. What, in your judgment, is the influence 
of fraternities on scholarship in your school ? 

"5. What is your observation of the moral in- 
fluence of fraternities? 

172 



Literary Societies Formed 

"6. Have you found the fraternities to be 
helps or hindrances in matters of discipline? 

"7. Have you adopted any rules for the con- 
trol of fraternities? If so, state the substance of 
them. 

"8. What suggestions would you make as to 
principles and methods for the regulation of fra- 
ternities if any special control is desirable ? 

"9. On the whole, balancing their good and 
evil effects, do you regard the existence of fraterni- 
ties in your institution an advantage or disadvan- 
tage ? 

"I had received replies to these questions before 
leaving home from one hundred and thirty in- 
stitutions, which, considering the lateness of the 
date at which I sent out the circular, the fact that 
it fell on a time when the colleges generally had 
closed, and many of the presidents were away from 
home, together with the almost irresistible gravita- 
tion which circulars with long lists of questions 
have toward the waste-basket, is a very fair re- 
turn. 

"I will not attempt to present any detailed di- 
gest of the answers which I have received to these 
questions. A summary of results on the principal 
points, together with the quotation of a few indi- 
vidual opinions and suggestions will be sufficient. 

a Of the one hundred and thirty colleges reply- 
ing to my inquiries, thirty-three report that they 
have no fraternities, but that they are not pro- 
hibited, and express no opinion concerning them. 
Twenty-one have none — do not formally prohibit, 
but express unfavorable opinions of the fraterni- 

173 



History of Otterbein University 

ties; twenty have them, but consider them a dis- 
advantage; twenty-seven have them, and consider 
them an advantage; one has none, but expresses a 
desire for their organization. Summarizing sim- 
ply with reference to the favorable or unfavorable 
estimate of the fraternities, not taking account of 
the thirty-three that do not have them, eighty-five 
report as opposed to them, while twenty-eight re- 
gard them with favor. It thus appears that, com- 
paring for and against, the proportion is three to 
one against. 

"The complaints against the fraternities specify 
that they produce clannishness ; that they give rise 
to unnatural divisions among students; that they 
interfere with the work of the literary societies; 
that they add bitterness to college politics; that 
they are the occasion of burdensome expense to 
their members; that they encourage extravagance 
and dissipation; that they are organized upon a 
social rather than a scholastic basis ; that they are 
frequently places of refuge and rocks of defense 
for evil-doers; that they absorb time and energy 
that the student should give to his regular work; 
that they tend to cause students to regard college 
as a place of amusement rather than work, and 
that on account of unnatural factions which they 
create, and the strife and bitterness which they 
engender, they seriously interfere with the moral 
and religious growth of students. A few quota- 
tions from the responses which I am permitted to 
use will show the character of this adverse judg- 
ment. The president of Adrian College says: 'I 
see no advantage that justifies the expenditure of 

174 



Literary Societies Formed 

time and means. The danger of their being per- 
verted to a bad use is always great/ The pres- 
ident of Lake Forest says : 'They destroy the very 
valuable literary societies, stratify the social life 
on artificial lines rather than by natural affinities, 
provoke unfriendly rivalries, and tend to dissipa- 
tion.' The president of Trinity College, of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, says: 'The influence of clique 
overbalances the benefit of association; they sub- 
stitute the standard of party for moral considera- 
tions.' The president of Brown University says: 
'If they were not here I should use my influence 
against their establishment. Several of the fra- 
ternities are a positive help, but if you permit 
these you must the others, and a few are of such a 
character as to be an evil. The system with us has, 
perhaps, a slight preponderance of good as com- 
pared with no societies at all, but a large pre- 
ponderance of evil as compared with the old debat- 
ing societies.' 

"Without naming the sources, I add the follow- 
ing expressions : 'Artificial associations become or- 
ganic on the principle of secrecy, corrupt good 
morals.' 'They engender strife and immoral in- 
trigues.' 'They engender a spirit of strife, and in 
cases known, students have degenerated as soon as 
they have joined them.' 'They are evil, only evil, 
and that continually.' 

"Of the institutions reporting favorably for the 
fraternities, I do not find many specific points of 
advantage mentioned, but for the most part a gen- 
eral, and in some cases a reserved favorable ex- 
pression. Of the advantages suggested, however, 

175 



History of Otterbein University 

are the following: The cultivation of college 
spirit; a stimulus to scholarship as a condition to 
membership in them; their social pleasures and 
benefits, and the post-graduate bonds which they 
establish ; a general inspiration to honest work, and 
manly conduct in the case of societies that take in 
only the best men ; and in some cases a direct and 
indirect help in matters of discipline. 

"With regard to the methods pursued by those 
institutions that prohibit them, in some cases they 
are excluded by charter; in some they have been 
abolished by the trustees or by the faculty ; in oth- 
ers they are kept out by the moral influence and 
advice of the faculty. In a few cases a pledge not 
to join a secret society is a condition of entrance; 
and in the case of the University of Illinois, a 
double pledge is required to be signed by the stu- 
dent — one on his entrance that he will not connect 
himself with a secret society, and another on his 
graduation, or dismissal, that during the time that 
he has been in the institution he has not been con- 
nected with such a society. All schools testifying 
that fraternities had been abolished testify that 
the abolition had been made effective." 

It will thus be seen from the above concensus 
of opinion gathered from the presidents of one 
hundred and thirty different institutions of learn- 
ing, that the preponderance of judgment is de- 
cidedly against fraternities. Otterbein University 
never having had fraternities, is not qualified, ex- 
cept in a negative way, to judge as to their influ- 
ence, but it is interesting to note that this institu- 
tion, for the past sixty years, has been remarkably 

176 




JOHN HAYWOOD, LL. D. 

Professor of Mathematics, and Connected with the 
College for over Half a Century 




THOMAS McFADDEN, M. D. 
Professor of Natural Science for Twenty-two Years 



Literary Societies Formed 

free from the evils attributed to fraternities in the 
concensus, while there has been no lack of the good 
things attributed to them, which shows that they 
may be had without them. 



12 177 



History of Otterbein University 



OHAPTEK XII. 

Progress of the Work of the University Since 1860 — Some 
Account of Those Who Shared in It. 

This is, in some respects, a difficult chapter to 
write, not because there is a scarcity of material, 
but, rather, because there is such an abundance 
that much must be omitted, and the task of selec- 
tion is somewhat delicate as well as difficult. It 
will hardly do to speak only of the labors and 
achievements of those who have passed away or 
have finished their work with the university; for 
some yet living and at work have done so much to 
make the history of the university, that its omis- 
sion would greatly impair the value of the narra- 
tive. The author, therefore, expects to exercise 
his judgment as impartially as possible, freely 
admitting that he will, perhaps, omit much that 
some readers will regard more important than 
some of the things given. Some, too, have labored 
so effectively, both in the properly educational 
work of the university and also in the promotion 
of the material interests of the institution, that 
their services cannot well be separately presented, 
so there will be no hesitation to present both to- 
gether, grouping events somewhat around presi- 
dential administrations. 

In most cases, perhaps, enough has been said in 
previous chapters concerning the work and workers 
during what has been described as the pioneer 

178 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

period of the "university, extending from 1847 to 
1860 ; but the labors of some have been so conspic- 
uous on the hither side of the line that some fur- 
ther account of them should be given. 

LATER ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT DAVIS. 

In 1860, Rev. L. Davis, who, on his election for 
a second term as a bishop, had retired from the 
presidency in 1857, was again elected president, 
nearly a year before his term as bishop had ex- 
pired. In this selection the trustees acted more 
wisely than, at the time, they knew, for while there 
was great political excitement throughout the 
country, yet no one could then certainly foresee 
the great War of the Rebellion, which burst upon 
the country in 1861. It was indeed most fortu- 
nate that a man of such experience, courage, and 
ability was called to the head of the institution 
and guided its affairs during the trying period of 
the war and the troublous years immediately fol- 
lowing. While no great progress was made or even 
attempted during the war, it was no slight task, 
when so many of the students had gone to the field 
or were called home to take the places of their 
fathers and brothers who had gone, simply to main- 
tain the institution and prevent its serious decline 
and perhaps failure. Promptly after the close of 
the war in 1865, the board of trustees resolved to 
ask the Church in the cooperating territory for 
$60,000 endowment, not in scholarships, but in 
cash and pledges of money. The responsibility of 
soliciting this endowment was placed in chief upon 
President Davis, and, very largely, through his 

179 



History of Otterbein University 

efforts it was carried through to success, though it 
required uutil 1870 to accomplish it. The citizens 
of Westerville led in the effort, contributing in 
cash and pledges the sum of $10,000 toward the 
endowment of what has ever since been known as 
the Westerville chair. In recognition of the very 
valuable services of President Davis in securing 
the $60,000 endowment, the professorship of men- 
tal and moral science, held at the time by Presi- 
dent Davis, was designated as the Westerville 
chair. The Dresbach and Flickinger chairs were 
also established in this effort. It had been agreed 
that any individual or family contributing five or 
more thousand dollars should have the privilege of 
naming the chair to which it should be applied. 
Jonathan Dresbach, one of the three original trus- 
tees (Rev. L. Davis and Rev. Wm. Hanby being 
the other two) , a warm friend and supporter of the 
institution, contributed $5,000, and the professor- 
ship of mathematics has since been known as the 
Dresbach chair. The gift of Mr. Dresbach was, at 
the time, the largest single gift that had ever come 
to the university. The Flickinger chair was a 
family affair. Rev. D. K. Flickinger, with his 
brothers Jacob and Samuel, each contributed 
$1,100, and other members of the family, residing 
mostly in the bounds of the Miami Conference, 
brought the aggregate up to $5,000, and the name 
Flickinger chair has since been attached to the 
Latin professorship. To Rev. D. K. Flickinger, 
before and since so widely known in the Church 
as missionary to Africa, as General Missionary 
Secretary, and bishop, the credit for the Flickinger 

180 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

chair is largely due. Besides his own contribution, 
he gratuitously gave the time and performed the 
labor necessary to enlist the members of the family 
and carry the effort to success. Ex-Bishop Flick- 
inger is still living, at the age of eighty-three 
years, at Indianapolis, Ind. 

President Davis often spoke of the success of the 
effort to secure this $60,000 endowment for the 
university with great satisfaction. He regarded 
the part he bore in the effort as among the most 
important services he ever rendered in promoting 
the material interests of the university. 

In 1870, the same year in which the endowment 
effort was crowned with success, an event occurred 
which again brought the courage and ability of 
the president into play. At about 2 a.m., Jan- 
uary 26, 1870, the massive main college-building, 
which stood on the northeast corner of the campus, 
was discovered to be on fire. In a very short time 
the entire structure, containing recitation-rooms, 
three elegantly furnished literary halls, a commo- 
dious chapel, the college library, including a copy 
of the Sinaitic manuscript of priceless value, and 
laboratory, was entirely destroyed, inflicting a loss 
of over $40,000 upon the university, relieved by 
an insurance of $20,000. It was a time of great 
gloom to the friends of the university. President 
Davis measured up to the demands of the occasion, 
as he had so often done before. At four o'clock in 
the morning, while it was yet dark, and while the 
ruined building was still a glowing and smoking 
mass, he called the faculty into session in his 
home, the present conservatory building, and, after 

181 



History of Otterbein University 

setting forth the importance of maintaining the 
work of the university with the least possible in- 
terruption, places for recitations were agreed upon 
— in the white chapel building, in Saum Hall, in 
the ladies' hall, and, temporarily, in the homes of 
the professors. In a short time the work was in 
regular operation again, and was fairly well 
maintained until the close of the college year. 

The board of trustees was called to meet in 
special session, February 16, 1870. When it met, 
a motion was made and carried to open the ques- 
tion of location and offer the university to the 
community in Ohio which should, at the ensuing 
regular session to convene May 27, offer the best 
inducements. Before adjourning, the board in- 
structed the general agent to apply the $20,000 
insurance money to the payment of indebtedness. 

When the board met in regular annual session in 
May, a proposition was presented from Dayton, 
Ohio, offering $65,000 in money and real estate 
for the location of the university in or near that 
city, and a proposition from Westerville, offering 
$37,000 in money for its continued location in 
that town. After an earnest discussion and the de- 
feat of a motion to extend the time for competi- 
tion, a motion was made to accept the proposition 
from Westerville, which was carried by a yea and 
nay vote of seventeen to three. An error 
by duplication of entry in subscription list 
was later discovered, which left but $35,000 
with which to replace the destroyed build- 
ing. As, however, the burned building had 
very massive walls, it supplied the material for 

182 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

the interior, and largely for the exterior walls of 
the new building. This, with the further fact that 
the erection of the building was let on a competi- 
tive bid, which proved more advantageous to the 
university than to the contractor, explains how a 
building so much superior to the one destroyed, 
and which has so well served the purposes of the 
university for the past thirty-six years, could be 
erected with the money available for the purpose. 
Some who were familiar with the building de- 
stroyed, with its smoky recitation-rooms, its huge 
and uncomfortable auditorium, occupying the en- 
tire upper story reached by nights of stairs, have 
been inclined, in spite of the heavy loss, to regard 
its destruction a blessing in disguise. It could 
scarcely have been remodeled, certainly not with- 
out a very heavy outlay, in a way to render it 
sightly and adapted to the uses of the university. 
The partial destruction of Saum Hall, some years 
later, was the only other fire loss of the university 
in the past sixty years. 

It was in soliciting the $35,000 used in erecting 
the present main building that President Davis 
rendered his last signal service for the university 
before his call to a professorship in Union Biblical 
Seminary in 1871. President Davis was the in- 
spiring and guiding spirit of the effort. Next in 
extent and importance were the efforts of Rev. J. 
B. Resler, while Rev. Levi Moore and Rev. J. M. 
Spangler, all agents at the time, gave valuable aid, 
and a number of volunteer workers, who served 
without pay, joined in giving success to the effort. 

The interest of Doctor Davis in the fortunes of 

183 



History of Otterbein University 

Otterbein University, after his departure to Union 
Biblical Seminary, did not abate. As a trustee, a 
relation in which he continued to 1889, the year 
preceding his death, by his wise counsels he was 
very useful in the deliberations of the board. In 
1888 he manifested his continued interest by a gift 
of $500, the last he lived to bestow. Among the 
last acts by which the board of trustees expressed 
its appreciation of his great services for the uni- 
versity, were his election to the position of profes- 
sor emeritus and the change of the name of the 
musical conservatory to Davis Conservatory of 
Music. He died at his home in Dayton, Ohio, 
March 23, 1890, at the age of seventy-six years. 
Five years later his widow ("Aunt Beckey") was 
borne to her burial from the same home. 

Thomas McFadden, M.D., began his service as 
a professor in Otterbein University in 1858, and, 
therefore, served for several years in what is de- 
scribed in a previous chapter as the pioneer period, 
extending to 1860. Professor McFadden was edu- 
cated at Dickinson College, in Pennsylvania, hav- 
ing previously attended an academy at Augusta, 
Kentucky. When he first came to the university 
the manual-labor controversy, described in a pre- 
vious chapter, was at its height, and the style of his 
professorship was that of the natural sciences and 
scientific agriculture and horticulture. He labored 
faithfully, in addition to his duties as professor 
of the natural sciences, to make the manual-labor 
department, as it was called, useful to the univer- 
sity and helpful to the students. This was a great 
task, hindered and embarrassed as he was by lack 

184 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

of means. In 1862 lie resigned and entered the 
Union Army as surgeon of the Forty-sixth Ohio 
Regiment, and later served as post surgeon at 
Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. In 1866 he was 
again chosen, this time simply as professor of the 
natural sciences, the manual-labor department 
having disappeared. He served in this position 
with great efficiency until his death, which occurred 
November 9, 1883, the entire period of his service 
covering twenty-two years. Retiring in disposi- 
tion and modest in his bearing almost to a fault, 
he never failed to win the admiration and love of 
young people who were privileged to sit under his 
instruction. He was intolerant of shams and care- 
less and slovenly work. He was annoyed by the 
inadequate equipment of his department, and 
brought such pressure to bear that the board of 
trustees, at its session in 1875, appropriated three 
thousand dollars for the purchase of apparatus and 
appliances for his department. At the same time 
the board appointed him the agent to make the 
purchases, either in Europe or America. In order 
to secure the most and the best that the money 
would buy, Professor McFadden went to England 
and largely made the purchases there. Never a 
man of rugged health, he yet never spared himself, 
but performed a prodigious amount of work, pos- 
sibly shortening his life by his close devotion to 
the labors of his position. Besides the heavy labors 
of his professorship, he served gratuitously six 
years as librarian, four years as treasurer, and 
seven years as member of the executive committee 
of the university. Abandoning his profession as 

185 



History of Otterbein University 

a physician, in which he had great skill and had 
gained an enviable reputation, he began service in 
the university at the age of thirty-two, in the full 
maturity of his powers, and here performed the 
great work of his life. A few, in the past sixty 
years, have served the university for longer 
periods of time, but none with greater faithfulness 
and ability. 

In 1862, upon the retirement of Miss Mary L. 
Gilbert as principal of the ladies' department, 
after serving very efficiently for six years, Mrs. 
Lizzie K. Miller, who had gone forth as a graduate 
of the university with the second class in 1858, 
succeeded to the position. She, with Professors 
Samuel B. Allen and John E. Guitner, who began 
service at the same time, were the first graduates 
of the university to become members of its fac- 
ulty, and from that day to the present there have 
always been some of its sons and daughters, and 
usually they have been in the majority, in its fac- 
ulty. Mrs. Miller served — except two intervals of 
a year each, during the first of which, 1863-64, 
Miss Melissa A. Haynie, and during the second of 
which, 1869-70, Miss Clara Leib, both graduates 
of the university, served — from 1862 to 1875, a 
period of eleven years, the longest term of any lady 
principal in the past sixty years. Her high char- 
acter, fine culture, and attractive personal graces 
fitted her admirably for the position. She wrought 
a good and successful work as a teacher, and espe- 
cially as a wise counselor and friend of the large 
number of young lady students who came under 
her care, who will ever hold her in grateful remem- 

186 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

brance. She retired in 18 7 5 in order to care for 
her then aged parents, and in 1887 was chosen 
president of the Woman's Missionary Association 
of the United Brethren Church, and at the same 
time associate editor and later editor-in-chief of 
the Woman s Evangel, organ of the society, in 
which positions she served for eighteen years, re- 
tiring in 1905. She is still living in Dayton, Ohio, 
esteemed and honored throughout the Church for 
the great service she has rendered. 

Upon the retirement of Mrs. Miller in 1875, 
Mrs. Melissa H. Fisher, the same as Miss Melissa 
A. Haynie above mentioned, of the class of 1858, 
succeeded her. She served with faithfulness, abil- 
ity, and success, retiring in 1881, after a term of 
seven years. She entered the faculty the second 
time with the ripe experience gained by four 
years' service in the public schools, followed by 
one year in the university, four years in Frank- 
lin College, Indiana, and five years in Westfield 
College, Illinois. After retiring from the faculty 
of Otterbein University, she served as acting 
librarian of the Nevada State Library and as 
proof-reader in the United Brethren Publishing 
House, Dayton, Ohio. For a number of years she 
has been a resident of Westerville, an interested 
observer of the growth and progress of her alma 
mater, to which she gave seven of the best of her 
twenty years' service as a teacher. 

Miss Josephine Johnson, a graduate of Western 
(now Leander Clark) College, Iowa, class of 1877, 
and in whose faculty she had served for two years, 
was chosen as the successor of Mrs. Fisher in 1881. 

187 



History of Otterbein University 

After serving for four years as principal of the 
ladies' department, she spent a year at study in 
Germany, and returned in 1886 as professor of 
modern languages, serving until 1890, when she 
visited Europe for further study. On her return, 
after serving two years in Western College, she 
was elected to the chair of modern languages in 
Otterbein University, and continued in active ser- 
vice until 1902. Her active service in the faculty 
of Otterbein University, therefore, extends over a 
period of sixteen years, which is the record period 
for a lady teacher in a regular department of the 
university. To speak of her service would be but 
to repeat substantially what has been said of her 
predecessors. She is a resident of Westerville, and 
deeply interested in everything that pertains to the 
welfare of the university. 

Other ladies who have served as principals of 
the ladies' department are: Mrs. J. E. Lehman, 
Mrs. Kate Hanby, of the first class, 1857; Miss 
Emma M. Linton, Miss Emma F. Burtner, of the 
class of 1884; and last in the list of lady princi- 
pals, Miss Tirza L. Barnes, of the class of 1885. 
These served but one year, except Miss Linton, who 
served two, and Miss Barnes, who served eight 
years. They well maintained the high level of ef- 
ficiency established by the noble corps of teachers 
who preceded them, Miss Barnes closing the list; 
and at the expiration of her term of service, in 
1898, Saum Ladies' Hall was remodeled into 
Saum Science Hall, and the position of lady prin- 
cipal was discontinued. Miss Barnes, ever since 
her retirement from the lady principalship, has 

188 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

served the university as librarian. Giving her 
whole time to this position, she has developed it 
into a measure of useful service quite impossible 
where only a limited portion of time is given to its 
duties. 

It should be noted that the ladies who served as 
principals in the faculty of the university, while 
they carried the full responsibility of teachers in 
relation to the students generally, and, as a rule, 
had more gentlemen than ladies in their classes, 
yet stood in unique relation to the lady stu- 
dents, especially those who were from abroad and 
occupied the ladies' hall. They were a kind of 
vice-presidents, and shared in administrative 
duties, so far as the lady students were concerned, 
and had much to do with the good order which has 
so generally characterized the university. They 
served as the confidants, friends, and advisers of 
the lady students, and so touched their lives more 
closely than other teachers. It was theirs not sim- 
ply to aid in the development of these girl stu- 
dents into accomplished scholars, but it was pe- 
culiarly theirs to aid in molding their character, 
and in cultivating them in the social graces which 
have so much to do with the comfort and success 
of life. Otterbein University has been very fortu- 
nate in the high character and ability of the ladies 
who have served as principals of its ladies' de- 
partment 

Ladies who served in the faculty as instructors 
and professors, not before mentioned, are: In- 
structors — Mrs. Miram M. Cole, English Litera- 
ture, 1873-74; Miss Cora A. McFadden, English, 

189 



History of Otterbein University 

1883-84; Miss Lela Guitner, English, 1892-93; 
Miss Emma Guitner, Greek, 1900-01 ; Miss Bertha 
S. Flick, French, 1903-05; with the present in- 
cumbent, Miss Alma Guitner, professor of the 
German language and literature, and Miss Sarah 
M. Sherrick, professor of English language and lit- 
erature. These are the ladies who have main- 
tained the ladies' part of coeducation in the fac- 
ulty of. the university for the past sixty years, as 
it has always been maintained in the student body. 

In 1862 John E. Guitner, of the class of 1860, 
became a member of the faculty, first as instructor, 
then as adjunct professor of ancient languages, 
then, in 1865, professor of Latin, and in 1867 
again of ancient languages, and finally, in 1869, 
of the Greek language and literature, which he 
continued to teach with great ability and success 
until the time of his death, September 28, 1900, a 
period of thirty-one years, making the entire term 
of his service in the faculty over thirty-eight years, 
which is the record period in the past sixty years. 

The death of Professor Guitner was only the 
second of a professor in active service in a regular 
college department in the past sixty years, that of 
Professor Thomas McFadden being the first, 
which is a little remarkable when the number of 
long terms of service is considered. The career of 
Professor Guitner is unique in this, that his entire 
life work was performed in Otterbein University. 
He never taught anywhere else. He entered the 
faculty when he was only twenty-one years old, 
and continued in service until almost the day of 
his death. He was a painstaking and thorough- 

190 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

going student, an accurate, capable, and efficient 
teacher. In his favorite field, the Greek, he was a 
master and specialist, not satisfied with mere gen- 
eral knowledge, however great, but eager to know 
to the least detail all that could be learned. He was 
a progressive scholar, not satisfied with past at- 
tainments, and kept well abreast of the times, 
pressing on toward the limits of knowledge as far 
as he could; hence he never became what is 
styled a back number, but his latest work was his 
richest and best. ~No one in the past sixty years 
has made a more solid and valuable contribution 
to the work of Otterbein University. 

ADMINISTRATION OF PEES. H. A. THOMPSON, D.D. 

In 1862, the year in which Professor Guitner 
began his service, there came to the faculty an- 
other teacher destined to perform here the great 
service of his life. Henry Adams Thompson, a 
graduate of Jefferson (now Washington and Jef- 
ferson) College, Pennsylvania, class of 1858. He 
had also studied two years in Western Theological 
Seminary, Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He had 
served one year as professor of mathematics in 
Western College, Iowa, when called to Otterbein 
University, first for four years as professor of nat- 
ural science and mathematics, followed by one year 
as professor of mathematics, retiring in 1867. 
After serving four years as superintendent of 
schools in Troy, Ohio, and one year as professor of 
mathematics in Westfield College, Illinois, he was 
elected president of Otterbein University in 1872, 

191 



History of Otterbein University 

in which position he served until 1886, a period of 
fourteen years, the record period for continuous 
service as president in the past sixty years, fol- 
lowed by one year as professor of logic and 
rhetoric, altogether a period of twenty years, in 
the prime and vigor of his life. When President 
Davis retired in 1871, the board of trustees 
elected Eev. Daniel Eberly, of the class of 1858, 
his successor. Mr. Eberly being principal of Cot- 
tage Hill College, a girls' school, at York, Penn- 
sylvania, did not enter upon the duties of presi- 
dent, but maintained a merely nominal relation 
until commencement, when he delivered the bac- 
calaureate discourse and performed the functions 
of the president in graduating the class of 1872, 
and then resigned. So far as active service, there- 
fore, is concerned, President Thompson was really 
the successor of President Davis. He was a man 
devoted to books and to study, and spent a larger 
proportion of his time in the class-room as a 
teacher than any president before or since, except 
President Scott. While he frequently went out 
into the field delivering educational addresses, and 
calling the attention of the Church and the public 
generally to the work of the university more ex- 
tensively than had ever been done before, his con- 
ception of the duties of the president of a college 
seemed to be to give attention chiefly to the promo- 
tion of scholarship by his labors in the study and 
the class-room. It seemed to be his conception 
that the promotion of the material interests of the 
university belonged to the financial agents, while 



192 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

it was the province of the president to advance the 
intellectual and properly educational work. 

It would be difficult to successfully contradict 
this conception of the work of a college president, 
but it is well known that a very different concep- 
tion has gained wide sway, not as a conviction, but 
as a perhaps unavoidable fact. In the case of our 
State institutions, it would almost seem that the 
fame of the president depends not so much upon 
his broad and generous scholarship, as upon his 
skill and success as a lobbyist in securing from the 
State legislature favorable laws and liberal appro- 
priations. In the case of our Church colleges, the 
demand seems not so much to be for the thorough 
and accomplished scholar, whose presence at the 
head of the institution will stimulate and guide 
students to the utmost intellectual development and 
achievement, as for a hustling canvasser, who can 
secure large gifts of money. Most fortunate are 
those colleges whose material needs are so well 
supplied that their presidents need not serve tables, 
as it were, and traverse the country as financial 
agents, but can devote themselves exclusively to 
the administrative and properly educational work 
of the institution over which they preside. Since, 
however, it is the exception and not the rule, espe- 
cially for Christian colleges supported by the 
Church, to be in such a prosperous condition in 
their material resources, it is very fortunate that 
there are scholarly men who are willing to make 
the sacrifice and turn aside from the directly edu- 
cational work and give themselves to the far less 
attractive work of pressing the claims of their in- 



History of Otterbein University 

stitutions for material support But for the suc- 
cessful labors of such men, the failure of some of 
the most useful of the colleges of our State and 
country would seem to have been inevitable. 

When President Thompson began his adminis- 
tration there was an effort in progress to unify and 
improve the work of Ohio colleges. The occasion 
for such effort was the fact that among the more 
than thirty institutions in the State bearing the 
name of college or university, there were some 
which were conferring regular college degrees for 
courses of study which were greatly deficient, thus 
cheapening these degrees, and bringing great re- 
proach upon the work of higher education. The 
effort to elevate and render uniform the standard 
of Ohio colleges was undertaken by the Association 
of Ohio Colleges, which was organized in 1867, of 
which Otterbein University early became, and has 
ever since continued a member. At first there was 
no standard of membership, but the presidents and 
professors of any institution in the State calling 
itself a college were welcomed. This was not sat- 
isfactory to the better class of colleges, and early 
attention was given to fi.x a minimum standard of 
requirement for college degrees, the aim being to 
make these requirements equal in the time and 
quality of work required. A standard was agreed 
upon and adopted in 1877, and it was also noted 
that conformity to this standard should be made a 
condition of membership in the association. A 
committee was appointed to make an examination 
of the colleges and report at the ensuing meeting 
what colleges fairly conformed to the standard. 

194 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

This committee reported the following fifteen col- 
leges, named in the order of their charters, as 
meeting the condition of membership : Ohio Uni- 
versity, 1804; Kenyon College, 1824; Western Ke- 
serve College, 1826 ; Denison University, 1831 ; 
Oberlin College, 1834; Marietta College, 1835; 
Ohio Wesleyan University, 1842; St. Xavier's 
College, 1842; Otterbein University, 1847; 
Antioch College, 1852; Baldwin University, 
1856; Hiram College, 1867; University of Woos- 
ter, 1870; University of Cincinnati, 1870; Ohio 
State University, 1870. 

This report was adopted, and at subsequent 
meetings three other colleges were received into 
membership, Wittenberg College, Miami Univer- 
sity, and Buchtel College. 

Otterbein University cannot claim to have led 
in this very useful effort to elevate the standard of 
Ohio colleges, but it joined heartily in it, and kept 
well abreast of the movement, a matter of no little 
difficulty because of limited resources. 

Nothing brought greater credit to the university 
while Mr. Thompson was president than the im- 
provement in college work which it helped to pro- 
mote, and in which it shared. The Association of 
Ohio Colleges rendered no more notable and im- 
portant service than in bringing the institutions of 
which it was composed to the level of the best col- 
leges in the land. Even institutions which did 
not become members were benefited, and with per- 
haps a few exceptions, were induced to maintain a 
higher standard of work. It may be true that 
some colleges of the association have not fully con- 

195 



History of Otterbein University 

formed to the standard adopted. Indeed, it is a 
question whether some very prominent colleges 
which were very active in securing the higher 
standard of courses and work have not themselves, 
by their semi-professional courses, departed some- 
what from the high standard they helped to estab- 
lish in the late 70's and the early 80's of the last 
century. 

The chief difficulty which Otterbein University 
experienced in the elevation of the standard of col- 
lege work was financial, and it was well that it had 
in its service at this important time a corps of very 
capable and successful agents. They were : J. B. 
Rosier, D. Bender, C. W. Miller, D. K. Miller, S. 
M. Hippard, J. A. Crayton, E. Bernard, and J. L. 
Morrison, all ministers except the last named. J. 
A. Crayton and E. Barnard served but one year 
each, and so did not have opportunity for great 
achievement. Of J. B. Rosier, who began service 
in the pioneer period, and labored successfully for 
seven years, an account is given in a previous chap- 
ter. D. Bender served as a solicitor for two years, 
and then as general financial agent for six years, 
closing his work for the university in 1879. He 
was a very successful agent, whose work was of the 
utmost importance to the university. It could not 
have been spared without disaster. He carried the 
university through the great panic of 1873 and the 
years immediately following, when so many busi- 
ness enterprises, managed by the foremost business 
men of the country, went to ruin. 

In spite of the success of the agents in soliciting 
gifts for the college sufficient to keep the contin- 

196 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

gent assets well up to the amount of the dent, the 
debt steadily increased, a constant drain upon the 
resources of the college to meet interest charges. 
Those who have experience in such matters know 
that a debt is usually a much more solid matter 
than the assets gathered by solicitation to pay it. 
The debt is good for one hundred cents on the dol- 
lar, and the interest is a constantly accruing 
factor, day and night, without a moment's inter- 
mission, while the assets are often in the form of 
notes on long time, sometimes without interest, 
occasionally the largest of the gifts being on annu- 
ity, not therefore an absolute asset until the death 
of the annuitants. Quite recently there came into 
the free possession of the university over ten thou- 
sand dollars, most of which a devoted and generous 
friend had given over thirty years before. It was 
a noble gift, but it had all the weight of debt in 
the annuity paid for this long period of time. The 
widening gulf between the amount of debt and the 
amount of cash on hand to pay it made it necessary 
to borrow large sums of money to pay pressing 
claims. When borrowed from inside parties who 
were devoted friends of the institution, it could 
usually be gotten on the credit of the university, 
but when borrowed from banks or other outside 
parties, personal security had to be given. This 
put loyalty and devotion to the test, and it is pleas- 
ant to record that there were those who were will- 
ing to serve the college by lending it their credit, 
and some of them stood for many years so heavily 
obligated in this respect that disaster to the uni- 
versity would have brought ruin to them. There 

197 



History of Otterbein University 

were, indeed, some who found it convenient to 
make promises to their wives that they would not 
go security, promises which they seemed to regard 
as extremely sacred, and which they would not for 
any consideration disregard! This rendered the 
burden all the heavier for those who were willing 
thus to befriend the university. Being, however, 
persons of moderate means, the extent to which 
they could honorably endorse reached its limit be- 
fore the needs of the university were met, and 
other methods of carrying the burden had to be 
devised. Mr. Bender was resourceful and recom- 
mended to the board of trustees to issue bonds first 
for $25,000 and later for $30,000, secured by 
mortgage upon the college plant. The board acted 
favorably upon the recommendation and Mr. Ben- 
der succeeded well in selling the bonds, and thus 
secured the means to pay the more pressing claims. 
The plan afforded great and probably indispen- 
sable relief. The bonds were issued for ten years, 
and were several times renewed. All except a few 
have been paid off. Mr. Bender secured the money 
which gave the basis for the Merchant chair, which 
he regards as the greatest single service he ever 
rendered for the university, fortunate alike for 
the school and the generous lady, Mrs. Caroline 
Merchant, who gave the money to establish the 
chair. Mr. Bender has for a number of years re- 
sided in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is engaged in 
business. He probably never performed a more 
important service than when, in a very trying time, 
he managed the financial interests of Otterbein 
University. 

198 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

Kev. D. K. Miller is another of the successful 
agents who served the university preceding and 
during the early years of President Thompson's 
administration. He had charge of the endowment, 
loaned it, collected the interest, and solicited new 
gifts to increase it. Some very valuable gifts came 
through his solicitation. The basis for what is 
now known as the Hively chair, so named in honor 
of Samuel and Elizabeth Hively, noble friends of 
the university, was laid by the money solicited by 
Mr. Miller, to which the daughter, Mrs. Harriet 
H. Smith, of Columbus, Ohio, has made very gen- 
erous additions since. Other gifts of very substan- 
tial value were secured by Mr. Miller. It would 
not perhaps be correct to say that Mr. Miller per- 
formed here the great service of his life, for after 
leaving the university he served for nearly twice 
as long a period as manager of Union Biblical 
Seminary ; but it is correct to say that he wrought 
into the university seven years of service from the 
prime and vigor of his life, the fruits of which 
abide, especially in the endowment fund which he 
helped to augment. Mr. Miller also has the dis- 
tinction of having served as trustee for thirty-four 
years, which is surpassed by but one trustee in the 
past sixty years. The father of the present board 
is Rev. I. Bennehoff, of the Erie Conference, who 
has been a member for thirty-five years, and con- 
tinuously since 1873. Mr. Miller also served a 
number of years on the executive committee and as 
president of the board of trustees. No trustee, it 
may be safely affirmed, has attended more sessions 
of the board and has taken a more intelligent 

199 



History of Otterbein University 

part in its deliberations. He now resides at Day- 
ton, Ohio. 

Rev. C. W. Miller, a brother of the last-men- 
tioned agent, spent altogether nine years in the 
agency work, two of them later than President 
Thompson's administration. The length of his 
service testifies to his efficiency, but to give it in 
detail would largely be to repeat what has been 
said of other successful agents. It is enough to 
say that Mr. Miller measured up to the standard 
of efficiency of the class of agents who* contributed 
substantially to the material resources of the uni- 
versity. He is now a pastor at Sunbury, Pa. 

This is likewise true of J. L. Morrison, one of 
the few laymen who' served the university. He 
spent four years in the work in a very capable and 
efficient way. He is now conducting a book-store 
in Westerville, Ohio. 

Rev. S. M. Hippard began his service as general 
financial agent and treasurer in 1879, succeeding 
Rev. D. Bender, and continued until 1892, a 
period of thirteen years, which is the record for 
length of service as agent in the past sixty years. 
Mr. Hippard had just completed a -Q.ve years' term 
of service as financial manager of Union Biblical 
Seminary at Dayton, Ohio, closing his service 
there with the erection of the Seminary building, 
which for nearly thirty years has served the pur- 
poses of this school of the prophets. It was his 
successful work for the Seminary which attracted 
attention to him as the man to undertake the 
serious task of managing the financial interests of 
the university. How serious this task was is ap- 

200 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

parent from the fact that a debt of over $75,000 
had accumulated, which was causing alarm to some 
of the devoted friends of the institution. The 
apparently substantial relief to this serious condi- 
tion of things was over $66,000 of contingent 
assets, leaving the net debt only a little over 
$9,000. Now, had this $66,000 assets been in 
cash, or in paper readily convertible into cash, it 
would have been a very simple transaction to pay 
off nearly seven-eighths of the debt and so reduce 
the exhaustive drain of over $5,000 per year for 
interest payments to less than $700 ; but the actual 
problem was far more difficult. Attention has be- 
fore been called to the armor-plate solidity of such 
a debt and the spongy and feathery character of 
such assets. The credit of the university required 
that the debt be paid, principal and interest, 
promptly when due; but more than one-half the 
$66,000 assets bore no interest at all, and a large 
part of it was in bequest notes, not payable until 
after the death of those giving them, while a con- 
siderable portion was in old notes long past due, 
and so of very doubtful value, leaving only a small 
part practically as good as cash. 

Such was the unequal contest between debt and 
assets which confronted Mr. Hippard when he 
entered upon his duties in 1879. It is plain that 
success in reducing and paying off the debt re- 
quired that there be large reinforcements of new 
assets, for at the outset, in order to pay accruing 
interest and annuity obligations, agents' salaries, 
and deficits in current expenses, fully $10,000 
per year must be secured in cash before the least 

201 



History of Otterbein University 

reduction in debt could be accomplished. At this 
time the outlay for interest and annuities alone 
exceeded the entire outlay for the work of instruc- 
tion, and to carry the debt of the university had 
become a greater burden than to carry the properly 
educational work. It is not, therefore, a matter of 
much surprise, however much it may bo a matter 
of regret, that in spite of all the earnest labors of 
the agents, the debt continued to increase until in 
1892, the date at which Mr. Hippard retired, it 
had reached the rather startling aggregate of over 
$114,000. Meanwhile the contingent assets were 
increased from $66,000 in 1879 to over $75,000 
in 1892. To pay all interest and annuity claims, 
agents' salaries, and deficits in the current ex- 
penses during the thirteen years of Mr. Hippard's 
administration required over $175,000, while the 
solicitations and collections during this period 
were only about $145,000, which explains why the 
net debt in 1892 was, in round numbers, $30,000 
greater than in 1879, and the actual debt nearly 
$40,000 greater, which latter sum had therefore to 
be borrowed in addition to the $75,000 of bor- 
rowed money in 1879. These words are quickly 
written and more quickly read, but they represent 
many years of struggle, anxiety, perplexity, hearts 
ache, wakeful nights, wearing toil, and sacrifice 
which only he who bore the responsibility of the 
growing load could appreciate, and only one who 
was on the inside, as the author happened to be, 
and knew what was going on, could comprehend. 
At the same time these figures attract attention to 
a little band of loyal and devoted friends of the 

202 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

university, in which band D. L. Hike, of Dayton, 
Ohio, stands as prince, who stood unflinchingly 
and courageously by the perplexed and hard- 
pressed management, through all the storm and 
stress of the great and prolonged effort, and gave 
indispensable aid in averting the threatened finan- 
cial disaster. 

In the strenuous struggle of the financial man- 
agement to maintain the credit and preserve and 
perpetuate the life of the university, there was 
resort to one expedient, begun during the previous 
management and continued in that of Mr. Hip- 
pard's the seeming necessity for which none 
regretted more sincerely than the managers them- 
selves. It was the temporary loan of part of the 
endowment fund to the contingent fund, in order 
to pay pressing claims. The situation was about 
this: In carrying the burdensome debt, the time 
came, as before stated, when borrowing money 
upon the simple credit of the university had 
reached its limit. Then came the appeal to de- 
voted friends to pledge, if not their lives, yet their 
fortunes and their sacred honor in support of the 
university by endorsing its paper. As the number 
of friends willing thus to befriend the institution 
was quite limited, the increasing debt soon out- 
grew this means of relief. Then came the expe- 
dient of issuing the bonds of the university 
secured by a mortgage on the college plant. This 
afforded great relief, as the bonds had ten years to 
run and there could be no pressure for the pay- 
ment of the principal for that length of time. 
Although the agents were able to solicit and collect 

203 



History of Otterbein University 

money enough to pay all the cost of carrying for- 
ward the educational work, yet because of heavy 
interest payments, fully double this amount was 
required, and the debt continued to swell in 
amount, making it necessary to borrow more 
money. In this extremity the managers, seeing no 
other way of relief, very reluctantly resorted to the 
endowment. This was a permanent fund of which 
the interest only was to be used to support instruc- 
tion, and was not legitimately available for the 
payment of debt. It was, however, necessary to 
loan the fund in order to secure interest for the 
support of instruction, and it was contended that 
if part of the endowment should be loaned to the 
contingent or debt-paying fund at the same rate 
of interest required from outside parties, with 
prompt payment of interest, with the repayment of 
principal in due time, the endowment would not 
be diverted from its purpose. The hazard, of 
course, was that there would be default in the pay- 
ment of interest and that the principal would 
never be repaid, as had actually been the case in 
some similar transactions in some other institu- 
tions. There was no attempt to justify the transac- 
tion except as a last resort to save the life of the 
university, to accomplish which at the time, there 
seemed to be no other way. It is easy for those 
Avho did not have the responsibility to face to crit- 
icise and condemn the transaction, but to those 
who were obliged to deal with the problem, it 
seemed wiser to make the loan and save the life of 
the institution, than to regard the endowment, a 
fund distinctly intended to perpetuate the life and 

204 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

work of the university, too sacred for such use, 
and allow the institution to perish, which would 
carry the endowment to destruction with it. How- 
ever this may be, it is a very great pleasure to 
record the fact that there never was a default in 
the payment of interest, and that the loan, which, 
at its utmost, exceeded $30,000, was repaid to the 
last dollar under later financial managements. 

Mr. Hippard is now living in Westerville, 
broken in health and incapable of further service. 
Although he served his country as a soldier in the 
War of the Kebellion, he probably never per- 
formed a more strenuous and heroic service than 
during his thirteen years' financial management of 
Otterbein University. 

Mr. Hippard was the last of the eight agents 
whose service was partly or wholly performed 
during the administration of President Thompson, 
and the reader will begin to understand that the 
financial agents had the hard part of the proposi- 
tion in the past work of the university, and so will 
understand why the work of the agents is set forth 
at the same time with that of the presidents and 
professors. 

In the later years of President Thompson's 
administration, E. L. Shuey, of the class of 1877, 
served four years as principal of the preparatory 
department and J. E. Lehman for one year, both 
with great efficiency. 

L. H. McEadden, son of Professor Thos. Mc- 
Eadden, of the class of 1874, after serving for six 
years as professor of natural science in Lebanon 
Valley College, was elected a professor in Otter- 

205 



History of Otterbein University 

bein University in 1882, and served as adjunct 
professor of natural science for two years, then as, 
professor of natural science for fourteen years, 
and then as professor of physics and chemistry for 
nine years to date, a continuous period of twenty- 
five years of very faithful and efficient service. He 
has also been a member and secretary of the execu- 
tive committee, librarian, and vice-president. He 
has been a judicious counselor in the work of the 
university, and his service has counted for very 
much in the past quarter of a century. 

Rev. W. J. Zuck, of the class of 1878, after 
serving as principal of Roanoke Classical Acad- 
emy in Indiana, Shenandoah Seminary in Vir- 
ginia, and professor in Lebanon Valley College in 
Pennsylvania, was elected a professor in Otterbein 
University in 1884. He served first as professor 
of history and English for one year, and then of 
English language and literature until 1903, when 
he resigned, a period of eighteen years. He served 
also as librarian for four years, as member of the 
executive committee for five years, as treasurer for 
six years, as general financial secretary for eight 
years, and as secretary of the prudential commit- 
tee for eleven years. Besides his capable work in 
the department of instruction he carried, for 
which he gathered a valuable department library, 
his record shows that he was useful in many ways 
during his long connection with the faculty of the 
university. Since severing his connection with 
the university, he has served as the pastor of the 
United Brethren Church of Annville, Pa., the 
seat of Lebanon Valley College. 

206 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

President Thompson retired from the presi- 
dency in 1886, and from the faculty in 1887, with 
a record of twenty years of laborious and effective 
service for the university. It was a period of sub- 
stantial growth and progress, and the work of the 
university was maintained at such a level that 
graduates who entered other institutions for pro- 
fessional and post-graduate study had no difficulty 
in maintaining themselves in competition with the 
graduates of the foremost colleges of the country. 
President Thompson also had much to do with the 
organization of the General Board of Education of 
the United Brethren Church, of which he served 
as secretary for a number of years, submitting 
carefully-prepared reports, which gave direction 
to the work of the board, unifying the educational 
work of the Church, and restraining the disposi- 
tion unduly to multiply institutions. Since leav- 
ing the university, Mr. Thompson has been abun- 
dant in labors of various kinds. For several years 
he served as State Chairman of the Prohibition 
Party of Ohio, and for several years as Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the Ohio Sabbath Associa- 
tion. At the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, he 
helped to prepare the exhibit of the Ohio Archae- 
ological and Historical Society, and during the 
Ohio Centennial he was Commissioner of the De- 
partment of Science and Education, and prepared 
the exhibit in that department. At the General 
Conference in 1893, he was elected assistant, and 
in 1897 editor-in-chief of Sabbath-school litera- 
ture. In 1901 he was again elected assistant, and 
also as editor of the United Brethren Review. In 

207 



History of Otterbein University 

1905 lie was elected again as editor of the Review, 
which position he now holds. 

Upon the retirement of President Thompson in 
1886, the board elected as his successor Eev. 
Henry Garst, of the class of 1861, who had been 
elected professor of Latin in 1869, and had served 
in that position continuously since. Upon his re- 
tirement in 1889, and his election as professor of 
mental and moral science, the board elected Hon. 
C. A. Bowersox, of the class of 1874, an attorney 
of Bryan, Ohio, president. The service of Presi- 
dent Bowersox was largely nominal, the duties of 
his profession engrossing most of his time. In 
1891 he resigned, and the board elected T. J. San- 
ders, of the class of 1878, at the time superin- 
tendent of schools in Warsaw, Ind., as his suc- 
cessor. 

President Sanders entered upon the duties of 
his position with great earnestness and enthusiasm 
and quickly inspired widespread hope and confi- 
dence. Por the first five of his ten years' service 
he gave himself almost wholly to field work, travel- 
ing to every part of the cooperating territory, de- 
livering educational addresses before high schools, 
conferences, and churches, and visiting the people 
in their homes to interest them in the work of the 
university. Among the first fruits of this stirring 
campaign work was the organization of the Wom- 
an's Cooperative Circle, which did much to arouse 
and enlist the women of the Church ; the erection 
of the Christian Association and gymnasium 
building, which quickened as well as expressed the 
loyalty and devotion of the student body, and the 

208 




Rev. T. J. SANDERS, Ph. D. 
A Former President, and .Now Professor of Philosophy 





, '' ",y> 








*;?■•■■ .;y?- 








2 


V^Sl* 


1 M 


jjggi 




a| 





DAVID L. RIKE 

One of the University's Best Friends and Member of the 
Board of Trustees 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

execution of the so-called Knox plan, which 
arrested the swelling tide of debt and reduced it to 
manageable proportions. 

The chief service of the Woman's Cooperative 
Circle, while it was very useful in other ways, was 
its aid in carrying to success the Knox plan, and 
its work may be considered in connection with that 
plan. The erection of the Christian Association 
and gymnasium building, while in the author's 
view it had a very important bearing upon the 
success of the Knox plan, since it was a distinct- 
ively student enterprise, especially of the students 
who were members of the Christian associations 
of the university, can appropriately be presented 
in connection with the work of the associations, 
and we come at once to the consideration of the 
Knox plan. 

What was the Knox plan ? In brief, it was a 
plan to relieve the well-nigh hopeless financial em- 
barrassment of the university. As before stated, 
the debt in 1892 was reported at over $114,000, 
which was actually a slight decrease from the 
previous year, instead of an increase of from three 
to seven thousand dollars, as had been the case for 
a number of years before. When, however, the 
board met in 1893, the report of the general agent 
and treasurer, C. W. Miller, who had succeeded 
Mr. Hippard, revealed the startling fact that the 
debt had increased over $8,000 during the year, 
swelling the amount to over $122,000. President 
Sanders very earnestly yet hopefully discussed the 
gravity of the situation in his report to the board, 
and recommended that there be an effort to secure 

h 209 



History of Otterbein University 

$100,000 in sums of $500 and upward, to mature 
at on© time, suggesting two years as the time to 
fix for the accomplishment of the purpose. After 
appointing the committees and referring the 
president's recommendations to the appropriate 
committees, the board adjourned to give the com- 
mittees time to prepare their reports. When the 
board convened in the afternoon, Mr. John Knox, 
a layman, a resident of Westerville and stanch 
friend of the university, not a trustee, arose and 
asked permission to present to the board a plan to 
secure the money in one year to pay the debt of the 
university. Permission was granted and he briefly 
outlined a plan to secure $80,000 for the univer- 
sity between the adjournment of the board in 1893 
and the adjournment of the board in 1894, in sums 
of $1,000 and upwards, all pledges to be condi- 
tioned upon the full sum of $80,000 being secured 
within the time named, with the proviso that all 
persons contributing one or more thousand dollars 
should be elected members of a special finance com- 
mittee to take control of the financial interests of 
the university and see that, the money secured was 
applied to the payment of the debt. The plan of 
Mr. Knox, who was a successful business man, im- 
pressed the board very favorably, and it was 
promptly referred to the committee on finance, 
with instructions to consider it and report. In 
due time the committee reported the plan, with 
some minor modifications, and the board adopted 
it and appointed a committee of ten persons to 
direct in the execution of the plan. This commit- 
tee met immediately after the final adjournment 

210 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

of the board, and started the effort by pledging 
$11,000, which was thought a very auspicious be- 
ginning. This was on the 15th of June, 1893. 
The country, at the time, was fairly prosperous 
and there were high hopes for the success of the 
Knox plan and the relief of the university from 
its embarrassed condition; but before the month 
was out the great financial panic of that year burst 
upon the country with the violence of a tornado, 
and for a time entirely paralyzed the effort. There 
were failures on every hand, and it was utterly 
impossible to make any headway in the effort to 
execute the Knox plan. All public effort ceased 
for months and there was anxious waiting for the 
financial storm to abate so that the effort might be 
resumed. Meanwhile a list of persons who, it was 
thought, were able, and who, it was hoped, would 
be willing to help, was made and amounts set oppo- 
site their names for which they should be asked. 
In this way the entire $80,000 was apportioned, 
and it is a somewhat remarkable fact that when 
the effort was crowned with success it was found 
that over two-thirds of the entire sum was gotten 
from persons whose names were in this list. Pres- 
ident Sanders was tireless in his efforts to collect 
and marshal the forces to be ready at the earliest 
opportune moment to move forward to the execu- 
tion of the Knox plan. He traveled extensively 
in the cooperating territory, held numerous con- 
ferences with influential friends, making known to 
them the amounts which it was hoped they might 
contribute, and asking their earnest and prayerful 
consideration of the matter. The General Confer- 

211 



History of Otterbein University 

ence of 1893 had decided that the ensuing quad- 
rennium should be devoted especially to the edu- 
cational interests of the Church, and that there 
should be earnest efforts to free all her colleges 
from debt and improve and increase their equip- 
ment. The General Conference, however, devised 
no plans by which this work should be accom- 
plished. President Sanders suggested a bishops' 
council, to which should be invited the general offi- 
cers of the Church, presidents, and financial man- 
agers of the colleges, and other interested persons, 
to consider the condition of the educational work 
and give impulse and direction to the effort for 
relief. The bishops responded by calling a council 
to meet in Johnstown, Pa., on the 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1893. The council met and was presided over 
by Bishop J. Weaver, D.D. There was a very 
earnest discussion of the whole educational work 
of the Church, in which its vital and fundamental 
relation to' the activities of the Church was empha- 
sized. One of the recommendations of the council 
was that the authorities of the different colleges 
call councils and invite to> them the trustees, pre- 
siding elders, preachers, and laymen of the co- 
operating territory to agree upon some method of 
relief for the college of the territory. In com- 
pliance with this recommendation a council was 
called by the authorities of Otterbein University to 
meet on January 16, 1894, in Westerville, Ohio. 
The attendance was not large, but of quite a repre- 
sentative character, coming from nine conferences 
and three States. Prom St. Joseph Conference 
came Bishop !N". Castle, who presided over the 

212 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

council; from Allegheny, Rev. H. A. Thompson, 
Prof. Geo. A. Funkhouser, and C. E. Mullin, 
Esq. ; from East Ohio, Eev. W. O. SifTert and 
Kev. W. IT. Shepherd; from Central Ohio, Kev. 
W. G. Mauk and Kev. J. T. Mauger ; from Miami, 
Kev. G. M. Mathews, Kev. W. J. Shuey, Kev. S. 
W. Keister, Kev. L. Bookwalter, and S. E. Kum- 
ler, Judge J. A. Shauck, F. H. Kike, E. T. Shuey, 
and George Hartzell, Esq. ; from North Ohio-, Rev. 
D. B. Keller; from Auglaize-, Rev. J. W. Tower; 
from Sandusky, Rev. D. R. Miller, Rev. I. P. Tea, 
Rev. J. W. Hicks, and Rev. G. T. Bender; from 
Scioto, Rev. G. W. Deaver. These, with a number 
of local representatives, constituted the council. It 
was a most important body, facing very grave re- 
sponsibility. The endeavor was first to learn as 
accurately as possible the real condition of the 
university. It was found that internally the insti- 
tution was really prosperous, with a growing num- 
ber of most excellent and thoroughly loyal stu- 
dents. It was found that from 1880 to 1894 the 
institution, exclusive of agents' salaries and 
interest on debt, had been conducted for an 
average of $10,028 per annum, a surprisingly 
low sum, when the extent and standard character 
of the work done are considered, proving beyond 
question that there had been very careful and 
economical management. In fact, it would seem 
that about everything the council saw or after care^ 
ful investigation discovered, except the enormous 
debt, was satisfactory and very gratifying, and so 
courage and determination seemed to grow as the 
council proceeded in its deliberations, and it was 

213 



History of Otterbein University 

resolved to make a most determined effort to carry 
the Knox plan to success in spite of the financial 
crisis, from which there was as yet little or no 
abatement, and so the council adopted a number of 
inspiring resolutions, of which this is the last : 

"8. Finally, we, as members of this council, in- 
dividually and collectively, appreciating the funda- 
mental importance of Otterbein University to the 
work and success of the Church, pledge ourselves 
to stand by and aid the effort to relieve the uni- 
versity. Taking this interest upon our own hearts 
to do our utmost, with earnest prayer to God 
for his help and blessing, we would lay it upon the 
hearts of all our people in the cooperating con- 
ferences, and bespeak the liberal aid of all whom 
the Lord has blessed with means, to the end that 
the needs of the university may be relieved and its 
wants supplied." 

Before adjourning, the members of the council 
started up the Knox plan again, which had halted 
until now at the $11,000 pledged before the finan- 
cial panic began, by adding $7,000 in pledges, 
bringing the aggregate pledged to $18,000, but 
seven months of the year were gone, and only live 
months were left in which to secure the remaining 
$62,000. It is plain that the problem could not 
be solved by the rule of three, for $62,000 in five 
months is out of all proportion to $18,000 in 
seven months. To some the attempt to carry 
through the Knox plan in the distracted financial 
condition of the country seemed foolhardy and 
hopeless, but not so to the little band composing 
the council. Immediately after the adjournment 

214 



lleview of the Progress Since 1860 

a canvass began of an intensity such as the Church 
had never known before. President Sanders was 
the leader and inspiring spirit of the campaign. 
Rev. C. W. Miller, of whose labors an account 
has already been given, was the general financial 
secretary and treasurer, and gave the last of his 
nine years' service for the university in the effort 
to execute the Knox plan. Rev. C. Whitney, the 
present home missionary secretary, gave the last 
of his five very successful years' of service as a 
soliciting agent in this strenuous Knox-plan cam- 
paign. The campaign grew more intense as it ad- 
vanced, and a number of volunteer workers became 
enlisted, of whom Mr. S. E. Kumler, of Dayton, 
was easily chief. He not only contributed very 
liberally himself, but he turned aside from his own 
business and traveled throughout the territory of 
the university, laboring with great zeal and success 
in the canvass, not only without charge for his ser- 
vice, but even paying his own expenses. In the 
progress of the canvass he opened an Otterbein 
University column in the Religious Telescope, in 
which the pledges taken from week to week were 
reported, so that the friends of the university 
could see the progress of the contest toward vic- 
tory. While the contest was yet on in all its in- 
tensity commencement came on, and the board as- 
sembled whose final adjournment would decide the 
success or failure of the plan, and so probably de- 
termine the fate of the university. When a com- 
mittee had carefully examined the pledges to learn 
whether they conformed to the requirements of 
the plan in character and amount, it was found 

215 



History of Otterbein University 

that about $6,000 was still required to complete 
the effort. A meeting was appointed in the col- 
lege chapel at 4 p.m. Wednesday to' attempt to 
complete the effort, and a large and intensely earn- 
est congregation rilled the chapel at that hour. Mr. 
S. E. Kumler took the platform as chairman, and 
the final effort of the campaign began. D. L. Hike, 
the chairman of the board, then the greatest bene- 
factor of the college, put the effort in motion by 
adding $500 to his already very liberal pledge. A 
number of others made additions to their pledges, 
while others made original pledges, F. H. Hike, 
the present president of the board, noting the 
pledges until the goal was reached, which, when 
announced, produced such an outburst of joy on 
the part of friends of the university as had never 
been witnessed before, nor has been since. It was 
at this juncture that Mrs. T. J. Sanders, president 
of the Woman's Cooperative Circle, was helped to 
the platform, and as soon as there was sufficient 
quiet toi be heard, on behalf of the Circle pledged 
$5,000, carrying the aggregate beyond $85,000, 
which was followed by another outburst of tumul- 
tous rejoicing. And well there might be rejoicing, 
as failure might well have been followed by the 
tolling of the bells of all the churches of the de- 
nomination, for the university could hardly have 
survived defeat, and to carry the effort to success 
in the midst of one of the most widespread and 
disastrous financial storms that ever swept the 
country was not only one of the grandest achieve- 
ments in the history of the university, but in the 
history of the church. It was a memorable occa- 

216 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

sion, and no one who was permitted to be present 
will ever forget it. It would be impossible prop- 
erly to distribute credit for the success of an effort 
in which so many shared by gifts and labors, and 
it is therefore deemed best to publish, in Appendix 
B of this volume, a list of the names of the con- 
tributors, with the amounts given, as it appeared 
at the time in the Otterbein University column of 
the Religious Telescope. It is a most worthy list, 
and those whose names appear in it stand in as 
honorable relation to the university as the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence stand to our 
country. 

Before final adjournment the board of trus- 
tees, in accordance with the terms of the Knox 
plan, elected all who had given $1,000 or more, 
members of a General Finance Committee, to take 
general charge of the finances of the university. 
This general committee chose a sub-committee of 
irve members, composed of business men, who were 
to take actual charge of the business, collect 
pledges, and apply the proceeds to the payment of 
debts, etc. The members of the sub-committee were 
D. L. Kike, S. E. Kumler, Rev. W. J. Shuey, Geo. 
W. Hartzell, and F. H. Bike. This committee 
organized by electing S. E. Kumler chairman, and 
F. H. Bike secretary. The subcommittee estab- 
lished its headquarters at Dayton, Ohio, where 
the members, with one exception, resided, and for 
the four years from 1894 to 1898 the contingent 
assets of the university were very successfully 
managed by the committee. The committee suc- 

217 



History of Otterbein University 

ceeded in collecting over $61,000 of the Knox-plan 
pledges during the first year after the success of 
the plan. These large and prompt collections en- 
abled the committee to make heavy payments on 
the debt, and greatly relieve the university. At the 
session of the board in 1898 the members of the 
sub-committee, partly on account of interference 
with their private business, desired to be relieved 
from further service. It was found, too, that the 
members of the General Finance Committee con- 
stituted by the Knox plan, and who elected the sub- 
committee, could not, with a few exceptions, at- 
tend its meetings, and wished to be relieved from 
the responsibilities of the committee. So it was 
proposed by the General Knox-plan Committee to 
return the management of the finances to the 
board, and with the consent of the board this was 
formally done, and the entire management has 
since been from the business office of the univer- 
sity, in Westerville. It is due to the memory of 
Mr. John Knox to say that when he saw the diffi- 
culties in maintaining the General Finance Com- 
mittee, required by his plan, he cheerfully ac- 
quiesced in its abandonment. While the Knox 
plan did not accomplish all that its author and 
others fondly hoped, nevertheless its success 
marked a very important era in the history of the 
university, and the institution has moved forward 
and upward ever since. 

There were a few soliciting agents, not before 
mentioned, who served the university just before, 
and during the administration of President San- 
ders. They were: Kev. S. H. Raudebaugh, Rev. 

218 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

Columbus Hall, Rev. W. B. Leggett, Rev. S. B. 
Ervin, and Rev. E. P. Sanders. None of these 
served more than one year, and some of them 
served for but part of a year. Rev. C. W. Miller 
and Rev. 0. Whitney, who, as before stated, 
closed their service after the consummation of the 
Knox plan, were the last financial agents who 
served for a term of years. When the Dayton com- 
mittee took charge soliciting agents were discon- 
tinued. President Sanders, who, during the ear- 
lier years of his administration, spent most of his 
time in the field soliciting students and money, 
during the later years gave most of his time to 
teaching and local administrative duties. For the 
six years from 1894 to 1900, there was almost no 
field work to promote the material interests of the 
university. This condition of things put to the 
test the theory of those friends of the university 
who contended that if the financial management 
were placed in the hands of experienced and suc- 
cessful business laymen of the Church, the money 
needed would be supplied without the costly inter- 
vention of soliciting agents. It is certain that the 
theory did not work in the case of the university, 
for while there were no soliciting agents in the 
field there was almost no addition of new funds to 
the resources of the university, although for four 
years of this period the financial management was 
in the hands of a committee of the most exper- 
ienced and successful business men in the Church. 
So in 1900, when the author resigned his profes- 
sorship and was elected general financial secretary 
and treasurer, it had become very plain that in 

219 



History of Otterbein University 

order to pay the portion of the debt not reached by 
the success of the Knox plan, and provide for other 
needs of the university, the canvass for money in 
the field must in some form be resumed, and there 
was earnest inquiry for some suitable person to en- 
gage in this work. The result was the employment 
of Rev. Lawrence Keister, of the Allegheny Con- 
ference, a graduate of the university, as field sec- 
retary. He entered upon his duties with great 
earnestness, and although greatly hindered in his 
work by the illness of his father, which later 
proved to be fatal, he secured for the university in 
the five and one-half months he was able to give to 
the work, between three and four thousand dollars, 
mostly in cash, and a conditional pledge of 
$25,000 from Mrs. Sarah B. Cochran, of Dawson, 
Pennsylvania, for a ladies' dormitory. 

On a certain day in March, 1901, President 
Sanders entered the business office of the univer- 
sity and said that an inspiration had come to him 
that an effort should be made to secure pledges, by 
the time of the approaching commencement, in 
June, sufficient to pay the indebtedness not met by 
the success of the Knox plan, amounting, in round 
numbers, to $63,000. He drew from his pocket a 
memorandum book, in which he had noted down 
the names of friends of the university supposed to 
be able to give generous sums, with the amounts 
they should be asked to give. He spoke with such 
earnestness and confidence, and expressed such 
willingness to give all the aid in his power in mak- 
ing the canvass, that it was agreed to make the 
effort as soon as the form and terms of pledges 

220 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

could be determined. It was agreed not to take 
any account of the old contingent assets, amount- 
ing to over $23,000, but take pledges for the full 
$63,000, conditioned on the entire sum being 
pledged by the time of the adjournment of the 
board. It was deemed best to proceed with the 
canvass without much publicity. When the field 
secretary, Mr. Keister, was advised of the effort 
he warmly approved, and promised to do all in his 
power to help the effort to success. When the 
preposition from Mrs. Cochran for a ladies' dormi- 
tory was received by him, the conditions were 
shaped with reference to this debt-paying effort. 
The canvass started with considerable intensity 
and the responses were very encouraging, a num- 
ber of large and very liberal pledges being taken 
at the very outset, and the indications for the suc- 
cess of the effort were quite cheering. 

Because of its bearing upon this canvass, it 
seems necessary to refer here to a relocation con- 
test mentioned in a previous chapter. At the ses- 
sion of the board of trustees in 1900, with a view 
to improving the condition of the university finan- 
cially and otherwise, it was decided to open the 
question of location, and invite propositions for 
the removal of the university, should sufficient in- 
ducements be offered. The information in the busi- 
ness office, from sources which w 7 ere supposed to 
be reliable, was that there would not likely be any 
propositions for removal presented at the ensuing 
session of the board. This information proved to 
be a mistake, for after the canvass had gotten un- 
der good headway, at very near the date on which 

221 



History of Otterbein University 

the proposition for Cochran Hall was received, a 
circular appeared outlining a proposition which 
was taking shape, asking for the removal of the 
university to grounds adjoining the city of Day- 
ton, Ohio. While the proposition for removal was 
defeated, the contest waged over it delayed the 
canvass, and it was not until January, 1902, that 
conditions seemed favorable to resume it. Mean- 
while President Sanders, after ten years of very 
laborious and efficient service, had retired in June, 
1901, and the board had elected Professor George 
Scott, who since 1887 had held the Latin pro- 
fessorship, as his successor. Professor Scott ac- 
cepted the presidency with the understanding that 
he continue to occupy the Latin chair, and that he 
be not expected to do field work. Professor 
Sanders, who on his retirement was elected pro- 
fessor of philosophy, and who before his retire- 
ment from the presidency had borne so large and 
important a part in the canvass, the completion of 
which had been interrupted and delayed by the 
relocation contest, stood ready to give all possible 
aid when the canvass should be resumed. This 
was of supreme importance, as Professor Sanders 
had gained such a knowledge of the field, and such 
a grasp upon the situation as to render his ser- 
vices indispensable. There was no agent in the 
field, Pev. Lawrence Keister having ceased to 
serve after the adjourned session of the board in 
1901, and the whole financial responsibility de- 
volved upon the secretary and treasurer who, on 
account of office duties, could give but part of his 
time to field work. So, with the assurance of the 

222 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

help and cooperation of Professor Sanders, whose 
inspiration had first prompted the canvass, the 
plan was hastily recast early in January, 1902, 
fixing the amount to be sought at $60,000, which, 
with over $23,000 of mostly old contingent assets, 
was regarded ample to provide for the complete 
payment of the debt, which had been held down to 
a little less than $63,000. Of the $60,000, the 
sum of $40,000 was conditioned on that sum being 
pledged on or before the 31st of May, 1902, and 
the remaining $20,000 on that sum being pledged 
on or before January 1, 1903. The problem, 
therefore, was to secure the full $60,000 in one 
year, from January to January, and a laborious 
campaign, in some respects more strenuous than 
the Knox-plan campaign, was again on. Much im- 
portant work had been done in the effort in 1901, 
but it all had to be done over again. While several 
large pledges were lost by the delay, yet, generally, 
all who had given pledges in 1901 promptly and 
cheerfully renewed them in 1902. While the help 
from agents and volunteer canvassers was not as 
great as in the Knox-plan canvass of 1893-94, yet 
there was important and valuable help. Eev. W. 
W. Eymer became an agent during the progress of 
the canvass, and gave good help. Professor Gustav 
Meyer, the director of the Davis Conservatory of 
Music, gave splendid volunteer help in canvassing 
Westerville, and a number of Columbus friends 
gave assistance which could not have been spared 
without defeating the effort. Besides liberal 
pledges to the $60,000, they spent over $1,000 in 
frescoing the chapel and painting the buildings. 

223 



History of Otterbein University 

President Scott also lent a helping hand, especially 
in the home field. By May 31, over $40,000 had 
been pledged, and so became valid, and began to 
pour into the treasury of the university at a most 
encouraging rate. The canvass for the remaining 
$20,000 was taken up without delay, and proved a 
far harder task than it had been to secure the 
$40,000, and when New Year's Day, 1903, ar- 
rived, there was still an uncomfortable number of 
thousands of dollars short of the $60,000. One 
good but far-away friend telegraphed a pledge of 
$1,000, closing his telegram with the words, "let- 
ter follows with note." A final hurry canvass of 
Westerville was made, and pledges secured which, 
with those taken in the evening at a meeting held 
in the college chapel, added about $1,500, and 
then Professor T. J. Sanders, than whom no one 
had done more to achieve the success of the effort, 
ascended the same platform from which S. E. 
Kumler, of Dayton, Ohio-, on the 13th day of 
June, 1894, had announced the success of the 
Knox-plan effort, and stated that two noble 
friends of the university, John Hulitt, of Hills- 
boro, Ohio, and George A. Lambert., of Anderson, 
Indiana, would, in addition to their large pledge, 
pay the $2,300 yet needed to complete the $60,000, 
and proclaimed the success of the effort. The an- 
nouncement was greeted with applause and re- 
joicing, though far less tumultuous than when the 
success of the Knox plan was announced. The 
success of this $60,000 effort completed the work 
so well begun by the Knox-plan effort in providing 
the means for the complete payment of the debt of 

224 




GEORGE SCOTT 

President for Three Years and Professor of Latin 

for Twenty Years 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

the university. The author takes higher satisfac- 
tion in no act of his over five years' financial man- 
agement, than in the complete payment to the 
endowment fund of the loan made from it to the 
contingent fund many years before, as he had 
always insisted that it must be, and in the pay- 
ment of the last note bearing personal security. 
The university, while always poor, and often in 
sore straits, has always preserved a clear record 
for integrity and honesty in its business, and has 
never failed to pay one hundred cents on the 
dollar on its obligations. ISTo creditor or employee 
has ever lost a dollar by the university. 

President Scott, after three years of service, re- 
tired, continuing in his relation as professor of 
Latin. He needs no higher praise than to say that 
he proved himself as capable and faithful in the 
discharge of his administrative duties while pres- 
ident as he has always been in the discharge of his 
duties as professor of Latin in his twenty years' 
career as a member of the faculty. 

On the retirement of President Scott the board 
elected as his successor Eev. L. Bookwalter, a man 
who had behind him a long and successful career 
as an educator, and who had just completed a term 
of ten years as president of Western (now Leander 
Clark) College, Toledo, Iowa. President Book- 
waiter, since coming to the university, has given 
himself almost wholly to field work, and the board 
has continued to avail itself of the administrative 
ability of Professor Scott by electing him vice- 
president. President Bookwalter has well main- 
tained the forward movement of the university, 

15 225 



History of Otterbein University 

and his administration has been signalized by 
keeping the current expenses within the income, 
not by scaling down the salaries of professors and 
other employees, and so crippling the work and the 
workers, but by soliciting the money necessary to 
prevent deficits; by the renewing of the proposi- 
tion for a ladies' dormitory increased to $30,000, 
and the solicitation of the money required to pro- 
vide an unincumbered site, resulting in the erec- 
tion of the splendid Philip G. Cochran Memorial 
Hall, now occupied by young lady students ; by the 
proposition of $20,000 for a library building by 
Andrew Carnegie, and the securing of the new en- 
dowment to meet the condition, for which large 
credit is due Dr. W. R. Funk, through whom lib- 
eral gifts came from the Keister brothers, B. F. 
and A. L., and from Mrs. Sarah B. Cochran; by 
the erection of a heating-plant, for which fine 
gifts came through Dr. Funk, from J. W. Ruth, 
the Thomas brothers, W. R. and J. P., W. W. 
Dempsey, and E. M. Gross; by the proposition 
of $25,000 for a conservatory and art building, 
also through Dr. Funk, from George A. Lambert 
and family. All these things, with the steady 
increase in attendance, and strengthening of the 
work in recent years, constitute a fine array of 
substantial facts over which to rejoice while cele- 
brating the sixtieth anniversary of the university. 
The professors not before mentioned who have 
shared in the work in the past years are Rev. 
W. J. Johnson, who served as principal of the 
preparatory department for two years, from 1888 

226 



Review of the Progress Since 1860 

to 1890, and gave special attention to normal work, 
in which he was an expert. 

F. E. Miller, of the class of 1887, who began 
his service as principal of the preparatory depart- 
ment and adjunct professor of mathematics, in 
1890. Since 1893 he has been professor of mathe- 
matics, a continuous service of seventeen years. He 
succeeded Professor John Haywood, and has well 
maintained his department at the level to which 
his able predecessor had brought it when at his 
best. 

Kudolph H. Wagoner, of the class of 1892, 
came into the faculty as instructor in Latin and 
mathematics, and principal of the preparatory de- 
partment, in 1893. He is a faithful, hard-work- 
ing, and popular teacher, who has successfully 
handled many large classes in his fourteen years 
of service. 

T. G. McEadden, of the class of 1894, served as 
professor of natural science from 1898 to 1900 in 
a very satisfactory manner. 

W. C. Whitney, of the class of 1895, a capable 
and versatile teacher, occupied the chair of biology 
and geology from 1900 to> 1904. He was succeeded 
by E. P. Durrant, of the class of 1904, the 
present capable incumbent. 

Charles Snavely, of the class of 1894, has ser- 
ved as professor of history and economics since 
1900 with growing favor and appreciation of his 
work. 

K". E. Cornet et, of the class of 1896, came into 
the faculty as professor of Greek. He occupies the 
chair made vacant by the death of Professor 

227 



History of Otterbein University 

Guitner, and it is sufficient to say that he is fill- 
ing it. 

And now the difficult chapter is written, with 
what success the reader must judge. The author 
realizes that there is not a favorable word about 
any worker that is not deserved. Rather, he real- 
izes that there is scarcely one of whom more that 
is favorable and that would be pleasant to read 
might not have been justly said. 

In order that there may be no omissions and 
that the reader may see at a glance who have been 
officially connected with the work and who have 
borne a part in the past sixty years, a complete list 
with dates of service is given in appendix A. 



228 



The Church in Westerville 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The United Brethren Church in Westerville — Christian 
Organizations in Otterbein University. 

When Otterbein University was founded in 
1847, there was no United Brethren church in 
Westerville. There was one about five miles east, 
near New Albany, then, as now, an appointment 
on what is called Albany Circuit. In Westerville 
the Methodist Episcopal, from which the Blendon 
Young Men's Seminary was purchased, was the 
only church. The United Brethren church in 
Westerville was organized in 1851, four years 
after the university began its work. President L. 
Davis, Bebecca Davis, his wife, D. Bonebrake, 
Prof. John Haywood, and Mrs. Mary Jane Price 
were charter-members. The last named is still 
living and is a resident of Westerville. The fact 
that there was no United Brethren church in 
Westerville for the first four years does not mean 
that the university was conducted during that 
period without religious services. In the first 
catalogue, a 4 x 6^-inch pamphlet of twelve pages, 
appear these paragraphs : 

"There is a regular Sabbath preaching at the 
Methodist church, alternately Methodist and 
United Brethren. Lectures on moral and religious 
subjects are also delivered every other Sabbath 

229 



History of Otterbein University 

afternoon. Prayer-meetings are also held in the 
institution every Thursday evening. 

"Students who are religious are assisted and en- 
couraged, and those who are not religious, sur- 
rounded by religious influence, we trust, will 
take knowledge of the way of piety." 

The preaching, during these early years, was 
largely done by Kev. L. Davis and the agents of the 
school, assisted by ministers who visited the school 
from time to time. At the session of the Scioto 
Conference in 1851, the Westerville church ap- 
pears for the first time with the name of Otterbein 
Station, and Rev. L. Davis, who had been elected 
president in 1850, was appointed as the first pas- 
tor. So we find that Mr. Davis, who has appeared 
at the front in so many relations in the university, 
at the front also in the work of the Church as the 
first regular pastor. And so the local church in 
Westerville began its career with a college presi- 
dent as its pastor, a minister of such prominence 
and distinction that the General Conference two 
years later elected him to the office of a bishop. 
Of course, with his many duties in the university, 
he could not give full service as a pastor, but he 
was in charge, and he was expected to provide for 
the pulpit when he could not himself occupy it. 
The agents, who at this early period were, without 
exception, ministers, were expected to respond 
when called upon and preach without compensa- 
tion, the services being regarded as largely part of 
the college work. In this way the wants of the 
charge were very well met. As this local church 
has been one of the most prominent and important 

230 



The Church in Westerville 

in the denomination, so it has been served by some 
of the ablest and the most distinguished ministers 
of the Church as its pastors. The services were 
held in the chapel of the white frame building 
which had been enlarged by building on an exten- 
sion, and in the catalogue for 1852 there appear 
these paragraphs relating to the religious services 
in connection with the work of the university: 

"Preaching in the college chapel every Sabbath 
morning at half past ten o'clock, at which every 
student is required to be present, unless parents or 
guardians have requested that they should attend 
some other church. 

"Morning worship each day of the week at half 
past eight o'clock in the college chapel. All the 
pupils are required to attend. 

"Prayer-meetings every Wednesday evening; 
class-meetings every Sabbath in the afternoon; 
Bible classes and Sabbath-school classes every Sab- 
bath at nine o'clock, at which all have the privilege 
of attending. 

"During the college year now closing, the insti- 
tution has been visited by a gracious revival of 
religion. Many of the students became the sub- 
jects of this work of grace." 

The college chapel in the white frame building 
was used for the religious services of the Church 
and university for many years until the new main 
college-building was erected, the chapel of which, 
however, was not in readiness for services until in 
the '60's. Many memorable services were held in 
this old chapel which those who took part in them 
will never forget. The revival of religion men- 

231 



History of Otterbein University 

tioned in the last paragraph quoted above was an 
early manifestation of the spirit of evangelism 
which has appeared again and again all along the 
line of the history of the university in deep and 
widespread spiritual awakenings, especially among 
the students. Indeed, it has not been an uncom- 
mon thing for revivals to occur so sweeping that 
scarcely a student would be left in the ranks of 
the impenitent. On one occasion a Presbyterian 
minister by the name of Boggs, in the far-away 
State of New Jersey, reading an account of one of 
these revivals, was so impressed that he sent two 
of his sons to the university in the hope that they 
would be won to Christ. He was not disappointed, 
for, soon after entering, both of them professed 
faith in Christ and one of them graduated and be- 
came a Presbyterian minister. In another of these 
revivals the interest was so general that the chapel 
of the old white building was thronged night after 
night with eager worshipers, and in the altar 
services as many as seventy inquirers at one time 
presented themselves, filling the front seats for 
four or five tiers back. In one of these altar serv- 
ices ex-Bishop Hanby observed a student counting 
out money to his companion by his side. Suspect- 
ing a case of sham penitence and brazen mockery, 
he knelt beside the student and demanded an ex- 
planation of his strange conduct. He promptly 
and frankly proceeded to< explain that he had de- 
frauded his companion in a business transaction 
and that he was engaged making it right by resti- 
tution in order that he might obtain peace with 
God. Where penitence took such a radical and 

232 



The Church in Westerville 

practical form, the reader will not be surprised to 
learn that lives of earnest piety and active service 
followed. The author came to the university from 
the First Church of Dayton, Ohio, of which Rev. 
Wm. R. Rhinehart, the first editor of the Religions 
Telescope, a preacher of no mean ability, at the 
time was pastor, and he remembers with grateful 
appreciation how some doubts and difficulties 
which had perplexed and worried him were 
cleared by the simple and luminous presentation 
of the terms and way of salvation by some of the 
able preachers who from time to time occupied the 
pulpit of the university church. 

Rev. W. W. Davis, the father of Rev. W. J. 
Davis of the Southeast Ohio, and Rev. A. E. 
Davis of the Sandusky Conference, who had the 
distinction of receiving Rev. L. Davis into the 
United Brethren Church, was sent to Otterbein 
Station in 1852, as the successor of President 
Davis in the pastorate. He was an able sermon- 
izer and had a very successful year as pastor. At 
a later date he served a longer term as pastor. In 
1853, the conference attached to Otterbein Station 
what was called Blendon Mission and sent Rev. 
Israel Sloane and Rev. A. Shisler, both of whom 
had been students in the university, to serve the 
charge. In 1854, the conference sent Rev. J. S. 
Davis as the pastor, who also served the charge in 
later years. Rather frequently in the early his- 
tory of the Church in Westerville, after the name 
"Otterbein Station," the words "to be supplied, '' 
were found in the stationing committee's report, 
which, in those early days, usually meant that the 

233 



History of Otterbein University 

president and agents of the university, with other 
resident ministers, would supply the pulpit. In 
1856, President Davis again appears as the pastor 
appointed by the conference. This appointment 
added to the responsibility of president of the uni- 
versity and bishop of the Church that of pastor, 
and it is plain that the relation must have been 
largely nominal, while the preaching and other 
work of a pastor must have been chiefly done by 
others. In 1857, Rev. J. H. Brundage was sent 
as pastor and gave his whole time to the work of 
the charge. In 1859, Rev. Alexander Owen, who 
in 1858 was elected president of the university, 
was appointed pastor by the presiding elder, and 
his was the last of the pastorates in what, in pre- 
vious chapters, has been called the pioneer period 
of the university, extending to 1860. 

It is thus plain that religious interests were 
carefully looked after from the very beginning. 
The apprehensions, described in a previous chap- 
ter, which some felt lest the work of higher educa- 
tion should prove injurious to spirituality and 
vital godliness in the Church, doubtless prompted 
to greater care and effort to guard against harm. 

The fathers who founded Otterbein University 
were men of faith and prayer and entered upon 
the work with the high purpose of making it tell 
in the upbuilding of a live, spiritual Church which 
should be an efficient instrument in extending the 
kingdom of Christ. It is not strange, therefore, 
that the missionary spirit early manifested itself. 
The board of trustees, at its session in 1852, 
adopted the following resolution : 

234 



The Church in Westerville 

"Resolved, That the board approve of a mission- 
ary society at Otterbein University to be auxiliary 
to the Foreign Missionary Society of the United 
Brethren in Christ." 

This action was remarkable in that it antici- 
pated the action of the General Conference of 
1853, which organized the Home, Frontier, and 
Foreign Missionary Society of the Church. The 
missionary spirit was astir in the Church at the 
time, especially in the Sandusky Conference, 
which came into cooperation with the university 
during its first year in 1847. Rev. John C. 
Bright, who may with propriety be called the 
father of the organized missionary work of the 
Church, was elected a trustee of the university by 
the Sandusky Conference in 1850, and attended 
the board session in 1852. It is probable that he 
inspired, if he did not write the resolution above 
quoted. His zeal as a friend and advocate of Ot- 
terbein University was only second to his zeal as 
a champion of missions. He early became a resi- 
dent of Westerville, and his influence did much 
to kindle and maintain the missionary spirit in 
the schools, as his labors as General Missionary 
Secretary, to which position the General Confer- 
ence of 1853 elected him, did much to stir the 
whole Church on the subject of missions as it 
never had been stirred before, and seldom has 
been since. So the first Christian organization in 
the university aside from the Church, of which 
students became members, was a missionary soci- 
ety. A report of this society published in the Re- 
ligious Telescope in 1855, states that it had at that 

235 



History of Otterbein University 

time five life members and sixty annual members, 
with $109.21 cash in the treasury, and $42.25 
dues subscribed, or a total of $151.46. The re- 
port is signed by B. E. Hanby as secretary. The 
society held stated meetings at which papers were 
read on missionary topics and appropriate ad- 
dresses were delivered by representative men of 
the Church. At the meeting reported, ex-Bishop 
Wm. Hanby delivered an address, and General 
Missionary Secretary John C. Bright was an- 
nounced for an address at the next meeting. In 
this way the students, during this pioneer period, 
while prosecuting their studies had their attention 
directed to the great field of service for which a 
Christian college especially is presumed to be 
training workers. Doubtless the interest thus 
awakened and the training thus imparted go far to 
explain the vigorous organization and the exten- 
sive operations of the Church in missionary work 
since. True, the society was not permanent and 
long since has ceased to exist, but it prepared the 
way for other and better organizations through 
which missionary activity has since been pro- 
moted. 

Another society which dates back to this pioneer 
period was a so-called theological society, com- 
posed of those students who were preparing for 
the ministry. This was of especial importance at 
that early day because the Church then had no 
theological seminary, and those who felt called to 
the ministry were obliged to secure preparation 
as they could through such a society or go to the 
seminary of some other church. The drill and 

236 



The Church in Wester ville 

discipline thus imparted was far inferior to a 
course in a theological seminary, yet it was far 
better than to go forth without any special prep- 
aration at all. This theological society was useful 
also in moderating and correcting the absurd no- 
tion that the university must do or permit noth- 
ing which aims to qualify students for the work 
of preaching the gospel, a notion which was widely 
prevalent in the early years of the university as 
was shown in previous chapters ; as if it were 
right for a Christian college to qualify students 
for secular callings such as law, medicine, or busi- 
ness, but by no means for a sacred calling such as 
the ministry. It was sufficient for these preju- 
diced people to come in contact with some of the 
zealous young students who, not content to make 
the utmost of the regular studies of the university 
to equip themselves as heralds of the gospel, were 
seeking special preparation by devoting themselves 
to the labors and studies of this theological society 
to forever deliver them from their irrational fears 
and prejudices. In this respect the members of 
this theological society offered a very wholesome 
object-lesson. 

Since 1860 some sixteen or seventeen different 
pastors have served the college congregation, begin- 
ning with Rev. Solomon W. Zeller of the class of 
1859, the oldest living graduate of the university, 
not as a graduate, but as a man, he being at this 
writing nearly eighty-two years old, who served 
during the year 1861-62. For the year 1862-63, 
the phrase "to be supplied," hides the real pastor 
of Otterbein Station, but in 1864 that prince of 

237 



History of Otterbein University 

preachers, Rev. Jonathan Weaver, was appointed 
pastor by the presiding elder. As he was at the 
same time general financial agent of the university 
it is plain that others must have done most of the 
preaching and other work of the charge. In 1865, 
the General Conference which met that year lifted 
him out of both the college agency and the pastor- 
ate by electing him a bishop of the Church. 

To' give the history of the labors of the dif- 
ferent pastors down to date would involve much 
repetition and sameness, and it is deemed best to 
record the names of the pastors, noting points of 
especial interest and importance, especially in the 
longer pastorates. Rev. Wm. Fisher, a faithful 
minister of the Scioto Conference was appointed 
as the successor of Rev. J*. Weaver in 1865. He 
was followed by Rev. J. B. Resler during whose 
pastorate there occurred a revival which swept the 
college and largely the community, resulting in a 
large ingathering of members. He was followed 
by Rev. Wm. Millar in 1867. The pastorate of 
Rev. J. G-. Bowersox, a preacher of striking origi- 
nality and power, followed in 1869. He was an 
advanced student of the university who never 
failed to 1 attract and interest, and his pastorate was 
signalized by a powerful revival. A typical case 
in connection with this revival is well worth re- 
cording. There came to the university in the fall 
of 1869 a quartet of young men to pursue a course 
of studies with a view to graduation. They came 
in late, and it fell to the lot of the author, who had 
just begun his work as professor of Latin, to coach 
them up so that they could join the regular class 

238 



The Church in Westerville 

in Latin for that year, and he had the satisfaction 
later of seeing three of the four, W. M. Beard- 
shear, H. L. Frank, and A. B. Hahn, graduate. 
The typical case was W. M. Beardshear, from near 
Dayton, Ohio. He had enlisted in the army of the 
Cumberland when a lad of but fourteen years, and 
before coining to the university, though belonging 
to one of the best families of the Church, through 
evil associations had become somewhat wayward, 
and he was sent to the university, as has not been 
uncommon, quite as much with the hope that he 
would become a Christian as that he would become 
a scholar. His fine mental endowment quickly be- 
came apparent. He applied himself closely to his 
studies and made rapid progress with only one or 
two outbreaks of waywardness to give the faculty 
anxiety, before this revival meeting. The meet- 
ings began in the winter vacation, and to the great 
joy of his friends, W. M. Beardshear was one of 
the first trophies. He immediately became one of 
the most zealous and effectual workers of the meet- 
ing, and indeed throughout his course in the uni- 
versity. After graduating with high honor with 
the class of 1876, he immediately entered upon 
the work of the ministry in the Miami Conference 
of the United Brethren Church. After two years 
he entered Yale College to pursue theological and 
other postgraduate studies. After two years' 
study in Yale, he became pastor of Summit Street 
United Brethren Church in Dayton, Ohio. Before 
a year of service was completed, in 1881, he was 
elected president of Western College, Iowa, in 
which position he served with growing distinction 

239 



History of Otterbein University 

lor eight years. He then served as superintendent 
of the schools of Des Moines, Iowa, for two years, 
when he was elected president of Iowa State Agri- 
cultural College at Ames, which grew and pros- 
pered greatly under his brilliant administration of 
eleven years, which was terminated by his death. 
While he held his position, honors and responsi- 
bilities were crowded thick upon him. He was a 
member of the United States Indian Commission 
for five years ; juror on educational rewards at the 
Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, JSTew York; 
Director of the National Educational Association 
from Iowa for a number of years ; president of the 
Department of Manual Industry and Training for 
one year, and, finally, president of the National 
Educational Association, his annual address be- 
fore which was the last achievement of his perhaps 
over-strained, certainly breaking powers, as he 
died soon after on the fifth of August, 1902. 
How great a distinction this last position was is 
indicated by the fact that the association elected 
as his successor Charles Eliot, then, as now, the 
distinguished president of Harvard University. 
Though he lived to be only fifty-one years old, he 
left behind him a record of a quarter of a century 
of such distinguished service as it falls to the lot 
of few men to render. In gifts and service, Doctor 
Beardshear far outshone most of the sons and 
daughters of Otterbein University, but in his in- 
tense loyalty to his alma mater, in his high pur- 
pose to' serve to the utmost of his ability his God, 
his Church, and his fellowmen generally, he but 
exhibited the common characteristics of the stu- 

240 




Mks. SARAH COCHRA.N 

A Liberal Donor to the University, and the Founder of th< 
Cochran Hall for Young Ladies 



The Church in Westerville 

dents and graduates of the university through all 
the past sixty years of its history. 

When the revival meeting under the labors of 
Pastor Bowersox was at the height of its interest, 
after the congregation had dispersed at a late hour 
on the evening of January 25, 1870, at a very 
early hour on January 26, the fire occurred as 
stated in a previous chapter, which entirely de- 
stroyed the new main building with nearly all its 
contents. The meetings were continued for a time 
in the Presbyterian church, kindly tendered for 
the purpose, and then the old white chapel was 
again used until the present main building was 
erected, the chapel of which has been used ever 
since for church services. The United Brethren 
Church of Westerville never has had a church- 
building but has always held its services in the 
university chapel, first in the white frame building 
dowm to about 1860, then in the chapel of the main 
building destroyed until 1870, and since 1871 in 
the present main building. The members of the 
Church in Westerville have contributed money 
enough to erect four or five church-buildings as 
good as the best now in Westerville, but they con- 
tributed it to the university with the understand- 
ing in the case of the building destroyed and the 
present main building, that they should have the 
use of the chapel for religious services without 
cost except a fair share of the expense of fuel, 
light and janitor service, and that the university 
as such should have the benefit of these church 
services without cost. It has been contended that 
this arrangement strengthens the bond between 

16 241 



History of Otterbein University 

the Church, and the university, and enables the 
Church to exert a greater influence over the youth 
who attend the institution to win them to Christ, 
as is fit in a Christian college supported by the 
Church. Others have contended that it would be 
better to have a building devoted exclusively to the 
services of the Church and there has been consider- 
able agitation from time to time for the erection 
of a church-building. 

At the end of one year of service Mr. Bower- 
sox, desiring to complete his course of studies in 
the university, retired from the pastorate and 
graduated with the class of 1871. He was suc- 
ceeded by Eev. E. S. Chapman from the bounds 
of the 'North Ohio Conference. The church at 
Westerville was his first pastorate!, which he served 
with great ability and success from 1870 to 1874. 
He was a young man of fine intellectual gifts and 
exceptional oratorical power. He had gained a 
large knowledge of public affairs by living a num- 
ber of years in Washington City where he served 
as private secretary to Congressman James Ash- 
ley, and as a Washington newspaper correspond- 
ent. After closing his service with the church 
at Westerville, he served a number of years as pas- 
tor of the First United Brethren Church of Day- 
ton, Ohio. He has gained a national reputation 
as a temperance orator, being at this time one of 
the superintendents of the Anti-Saloon League for 
the State of California. His interest in the 
church at Westerville and in the university con- 
tinues unabated. As a recent expression of his in- 
terest in the university, he has established a li- 

242 



The Church in Westerville 

brary of Lincoln literature in connection with the 
library of the university. 

Mr. Chapman was followed by another young 
man destined to great usefulness and high distinc- 
tion in the United Brethren Church. It was J. S. 
Mills, who was pastor first for six years, from 
1874 to 1880, and then after an interval of five 
years, during which Kev. J. A. Weller of the class 
of 1876, served one year when he was elected to a 
professorship in Western College, Iowa, and Rev. 
Frank A. Ramsey, of the class of 1873, served 
four years, he returned as pastor for two years. 
Mr. Mills, therefore, served for eight years, which 
is the record period in the past sixty years. It was 
during the pastorate of Mr. Mills that both the 
attempts to establish a saloon in Westerville, de- 
scribed in a previous chapter, were made, and Mr. 
Mills bore a full and honorable part in defeating 
the attempts, though he did not share with his co- 
pastors of the Methodist and Presbyterian 
churches the distinction of being arrested and pros- 
ecuted by the saloon-keeper. His pastorate, which 
was one of the most successful, as well as the 
longest in the history of the church and college, 
closed in 1887, when Mr. Mills was elected to a 
professorship in Western College, Iowa, and three 
years later to the presidency of the same college, 
and three years later, in 1893, to the office of a 
bishop of the Church, in which position he now 
holds the rank of senior bishop. 

Rev. W. J. Davis, son of one of the early pastors 
of the church at Westerville, succeeded Mr. Mills, 
serving for one year, when Rev. R. L. Swain, a 

243 



History of Otterbein University 

graduate of Western College, Iowa, and of Union 
Biblical Seminary, came from Yale College, where 
he had spent a year in post-graduate study, as his 
successor. Mr. Swain had attracted attention as 
an able preacher and stirring evangelist while pur- 
suing his studies in the Seminary at Dayton, Ohio. 
On taking charge of the church at Westerville, he 
quickly won great popularity. His sermons, 
always able, were at times masterpieces. Under 
his ministry large numbers, especially among the 
young, were won to Christ and received into the 
church. Probably no pastor before or since had a 
more devoted personal following than he. During 
the closing years of his pastorate some of his ser- 
mons disturbed the conservative members of the 
church. They seemed to feel that he outgrew him- 
self so quickly, and, in the language of the courts, 
reversed himself sometimes so suddenly that they 
could not follow him. This produced more or less 
friction, and, probably, explains why, on retiring 
from the pastorate of the Westerville United 
Brethren Church, he joined the Congregational- 
ists, for whom he has ever since preached. 

Upon the retirement of Mr. Swain in 1893, he 
was succeeded by Kev. W. 0. Fries, a graduate of 
Lebanon Valley College and member of the San- 
dusky Conference. He served faithfully for four 
years, the last year, during which there was a very 
gracious revival of religion, proving the most suc- 
cessful and best. 

On the retirement of Mr. Fries in 1897, Kev. L. 
~F. John, of the class of 1883, a graduate of Yale 
Theological Seminary, followed by a year of other 

244 



The Church in Westerville 

post-graduate study in Yale, came from a seven- 
years' pastorate at Johnstown, Pa., and served the 
church at Westerville very faithfully and ably for 
four years, when he was elected to a professorship 
in Lebanon Valley College. Kev. W. G. Stiver- 
son, of the class of 18 97, and a graduate of Union 
Biblical Seminary, succeeded to the charge and 
served for four years, well maintaining the stand- 
ard of fidelity and efficiency established by his 
predecessors. In 1905, Kev. Henry Garst, of the 
class of 1861, after thirty-six years of continuous 
service for the university as professor, as presi- 
dent, and as financial manager, served one year as 
pastor, when he was succeeded by the present pas- 
tor, Rev. S. F. Daugherty, a graduate of Lebanon 
Valley College and Union Biblical Seminary, 
whose pastorate has had a very auspicious begin- 
ning. 

It has seemed well to give this brief, but com- 
prehensive account of the men who for the past 
sixty years have occupied a pulpit second to none 
in the denomination in importance ; who have rep- 
resented the Church in giving to the university a 
Christian, but not sectarian character; who have 
preached the gospel not simply to the resident 
members of the church, but to generation after 
generation of students upon whom they have so 
successfully enforced the obligations of a life of 
service to God and their fellow-men, that when 
they have gone forth into the world they have quite 
generally taken their places somewhere in the 
ranks of the champions of truth and right. 

245 



History of Otterbein University 

While the interests of religion have always had 
a large place in the attention of the students of 
Otterbein University, yet, aside from the mission- 
ary society and theological society, before men- 
tioned, their religions activities during the early 
history of the university found expression only in 
the regular church services, in the Sabbath school, 
in the class-meetings, and in the mid-week prayer- 
meetings. Later, both the gentleman and lady stu- 
dents organized prayer-meetings of their own, 
which met weekly in some of the recitation-rooms, 
which were attended with fair but varying faith- 
fulness; but in 1877, when the national convention 
of Young Men's Christian Associations met in 
Louisville, Ky., an invitation was extended to the 
colleges of the country to send representatives with 
a view to organizing a college department of 
Young Men's Christian Associations. E. A. 
Starkey, then a student in the university, attended 
the convention, and was the only college represen- 
tative from Ohio, so that Otterbein University was 
the only Ohio college represented. It was the priv- 
ilege of Mr. Starkey to assist in organizing the 
college department of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and, on his return from the conven- 
tion, to join with his fellow-Christian students in 
organizing the first College Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association in Ohio. Five years later, in 
1882, largely through the influence and counsel of 
Secretary L. D. Wishard, of the Young Men's 
Christian Associations, and Professor E. L. 
Shuey, at the time principal of the preparatory 
department of the university, the young lady stu- 

246 



The Church in Westerville 

dents of the university organized the first College 
Young Women's Christian Association in Ohio, 
and the third in the United States. 

In 1883, the State convention of the Young 
Men's Christian Association met in MtL Vernon, 
not far from Westerville. National Secretary L. 
D. Wishard urged the Young Women's Christian 
Association in the university to send delegates to 
advocate the organization of similar associations in 
the other colleges of the State. Six girls were 
sent and were given a cordial hearing. The six 
girls, with their present names in parenthesis, 
were Emma Bender (Kumler), Jessie Thompson 
(Bogle), Justina Lorenz (Stevens), Jessie Ozias 
(Smith), Ida Gilbert (Fall), and Fanny Beal 
(Bonebrake).* It is reported that Miss Fanny 
Beal, in her earnest address to the convention, sup- 
ported her contention with the argument that "no 
one can reach a girl's heart like a girl." Notwith- 
standing the seriousness of the occasion, it is said 
that the young men could not resist the temptation 
to question the soundness of the argument ! and the 
parenthetic names which all these girl delegates 
acquired not many years after, would seem to vin- 
dicate the young men's skepticism. 

Otterbein University also has the distinction of 
furnishing the first State secretary of the College 
Young Women's Associations, in the person of 
Miss Nellie S. Knox (now Mrs. Professor F. E. 
Miller) . She served in this position for two years, 
from 1887 to 1889, giving, however, only a portion 

♦The author is indebted to Mrs. Professor F. E. Miller 
for these names. 

247 



History of Otterbeiii University 

of her time to the work. It is certainly gratifying 
to the friends of Otterbein University that the in- 
stitution has had such an honorable position of 
leadership in the College Christian Association 
work of the State ; but the fine record is not yet 
complete. The first presidents' conference of the 
College Young Men's Christian Associations of 
Ohio was held at Otterbein University in April, 
1892. These conferences were intended as train- 
ing-schools in methods of work, especially for the 
presidents and secretaries of these associations. 
At the conference in Westerville, presided over by 
Professor E. L. Shuey, chairman of the college 
committee of the State, Secretaries L. E. Doggett 
and S. D. Gordon and International Secretary 
John K. Mott were present as teachers, and the 
Association officers were carefully instructed and 
drilled for the performance of their duties. It 
was an extremely interesting conference, composed 
of thirty-six representatives from twenty-six col- 
leges, and doubtless accomplished much good. At 
the time of the presidents' conference in 1892, the 
Young Men's Christian Association of the univer- 
sity was already fifteen, and the Young Women's 
ten years' old. For a number of years they held 
their meetings in different recitation-rooms. This 
was not satisfactory and they appealed to the fac- 
ulty to assign them a room for their exclusive use, 
that they might suitably fit and furnish it The 
northeast room, second floor, of the main building 
was assigned them, and they proceeded promptly 
to paper, carpet, and otherwise furnish it. Here, 
on different evenings, the associations held their 

248 



The Church in Westerville 

meetings until the association building was erec- 
ed. The assignment of a room seemed to 
quicken the interest of the associations, the attend- 
ance increased so that the room was at times 
uncomfortably crowded, and the meetings were 
characterized by great spiritual interest and 
power. From time to time the question of a build- 
ing for the associations was agitated. Increased 
interest in athletics also caused the need of a gym- 
nasium building to be keenly felt. During the 
presidents' conference, International Secretary 
John K. Mott delivered an address on the impor- 
tance of Christian Association buildings, in which 
he contended that they would give to Christian 
work in the college greater prominence, perma- 
nence, popularity, dignity, unity, and breadth, and 
that they would afford a home for the students in 
which they would form some of the strongest and 
most wholesome social ties of their college career. 
The address greatly stimulated interest in the 
building project. The one great obstacle in the 
way, so far as the university was concerned, was 
the burdensome and embarrassing debt, which, as 
before stated, had, in 1892, the time of the confer- 
ence, reached the startling aggregate of over 
$114,000. It was agreed, on all hands, that noth- 
ing dare be done that would increase that burden. 
As chairman of the executive committee of the 
university, the author, when consulted by a prom- 
inent student, Mr. L. B. Mumma, who had the 
enterprise much at heart, felt that it was far too 
important and good a thing to be antagonized, and 
he simply insisted that if the work should be 

249 



History of Otterbein University 

undertaken, the students and their friends must 
bear the entire financial responsibility. It is con- 
clusive evidence of the intense loyalty and self- 
sacrificing spirit of the student body that in such, 
hard conditions they soberly and heroically re- 
solved to undertake the work. In conference with 
Secretaries John K. Mott and S. D. Gordon, it was 
concluded that a Christian Association and gym- 
nasium, building could well be combined in one, 
and thus broaden the basis of the appeal for help, 
as well as meet two urgent needs with one effort. 
The movement was one for which the students dis- 
tinctly assumed the responsibility, and it was in- 
tensely religious. When the meeting on Sabbath, 
afternoon, at which it was decided to provide a 
building, adjourned, another meeting was ap- 
pointed for prayer and consultation; about forty 
students attended. At this meeting it was decided 
to fix the amount to be sought in student pledges 
at $4,000, giving three years' time for payment. 
Just before the adjournment of this meeting, 
Secretary S. D. Gordon requested that those who 
had considered the question sufficiently to make 
pledges, should announce them, and with little de- 
lay fourteen persons pledged eight hundred dol- 
lars. After the chapel exercises on Monday morn- 
ing the students were requested to tarry, when 
State Secretary Gordon reported the action of the 
day before, and after a calm but very earnest 
address, asked for its ratification or rejection. The 
ratification was nearly unanimous, and then addi- 
tional pledges were sought, and at the end of one 
hour they aggregated $4,075, already surpassing 

250 



The Church in Westerville 

the limit fixed the day before, and the limit was 
advanced to $5,000, which, by the middle of the 
week, was again passed, the aggregate having been 
carried by private solicitation to $5,600. These 
student pledges involved much of self-denial and 
sacrifice. Some who had been promised bicycles 
and other coveted gifts by their parents, resolved 
to forego them, and, instead, put the value of them 
into* this building project. Indeed, when it is 
considered that the attendance at the time was less 
than three hundred students, all of them of mod- 
erate and a large majority of them of quite narrow 
means, this building enterprise is one of the 
grandest achievements not only in the sixty years' 
history of the university, but in the entire history 
of the United Brethren Church. Some weeks later 
than the canvass above noted, Secretary Gordon 
returned, and by his help the student pledges were 
carried to $7,000, while the faculty and other 
friends increased the total sum pledged to a little 
over $11,000. 

It is deemed proper to record here a little inner 
history, known to very few, in connection with 
this building enterprise. The reader has observed 
that the pledges taken were made payable in three 
years, but the students were eager for the prompt 
erection of the building. As the labor and material 
for the building would require cash payment, it is 
plain that prompt erection would make it neces- 
sary to borrow the money until the pledges should 
become due and collectible. This would probably 
require personal security ; but those able and will- 
ing thus to help the university were already heav- 

251 



History of Otterbein University 

ily burdened in connection with the large debt of 
the university and could not prudently and honor- 
ably go much farther. To avoid trouble and disap- 
pointment later on, the author, as chairman of the 
executive committee of the university, after he had 
heard his classes for the day, hurried away to Day- 
ton, Ohio, telling no one but his own family where 
he was going or what his mission, to consult that 
never-failing friend of the university in times of 
emergency, D. L. Bike, the non-resident member 
of the executive committee. On meeting Mr. Kike, 
he was found to be already deeply interested in the 
building project by what he had seen in the papers 
and had learned from letters written by students 
from Dayton attending the university. On laying 
the case before him, and also 1 before Mr. S. E. 
K/umler and F. H. Eike, they all said, in sub- 
stance, "Go ahead with the building, and we will 
join you in guaranteeing the money it will be nec- 
essary to borrow." His purpose having been 
accomplished, he hastened to the train and reached 
Westerville after midnight, appearing before his 
classes as usual, none of them being aware that he 
had been in Dayton the night preceding, or how 
seriously his mission was related to the building 
enterprise which filled their minds and hearts. 

The building committee, with Professor Scott 
as chairman, promptly secured plans for the build- 
ing, and the foundations were put in during the 
fall of 1892, and by the commencement in 1893 
the walls were up, ready for the roof. Some of the 
money was advanced by inside friends without 
security, but the larger part, notably one block of 

252 



The Church in Westerville 

$5,000 and another of $2,000, was gotten in the 
old monotonous way on personal security, and the 
Dayton friends, to whom the night visit was made, 
nobly redeemed their pledges by joining in the 
guarantee. 

The point has now been reached where, in the 
judgment of the author, the vital relation between 
this grand student movement, which secured to the 
university its excellent Christian Association and 
gymnasium building, and the inception and execu- 
tion of the Knox plan, described in the previous 
chapter, and the vital relation of a kind and over- 
ruling providence to both, clearly appear. The 
student movement was in 1892 ; the Knox plan 
closely followed in 1893. The Knox plan, it is 
contended, stood not simply in post hoc, but in 
propter hoc relation to the student movement. 
When John Knox arose, in the memorable board 
session of 1893, to present his plan, he began by 
referring to this students' building, then rapidly 
nearing completion, only a few hundred feet from 
where the board was in session. He said he had 
talked with these students until the spirit of loy- 
alty, self-sacrifice, and liberality they manifested 
had stirred his soul and had made him feel that 
the board must not adjourn until it had adopted 
some effective plan to deliver the university from 
the burden of its embarrassing debt, if it would 
show itself worthy of the care of as noble a band 
of young people as these students had shown them- 
selves to be. He declared his belief that if the 
members of the Church could be led to emulate the 
spirit of these students, deliverance could be 

253 



History of Otterbein University 

achieved in a single year, and then submitted the 
plan by which he believed it could be done, with 
the result as already given. 

If the author's judgment, therefore, is correct, 
and he was near enough to all the leading move- 
ments involved to have pretty close knowledge of 
them, these students builded wiser than they knew 
when they erected this Christian Association and 
gymnasium building. They intended to provide a 
home for the Christian organizations of the univer- 
sity and a place for physical training, a most laud- 
able purpose, surely, and worthy of all honor ; but 
in the orderings of providence they were given the 
greater honor of being the advance guard to lead 
the university out of the wilderness of debt in 
which it had wandered for more than forty years. 
At the commencement of 1894, at which the Knox 
plan was carried to a triumphant success, the debt, 
including that of the association building, aggre- 
gated over $130,000. While the success of the 
Knox plan, bringing to the university over 
$85,000, could not extinguish so large a debt, it 
did wipe out more than half of it and put it in 
process of extinction ; and what may very properly 
be called the Sanders plan of 1901, carried to suc- 
cess between January 1, 1902, and January 1, 
1903, completed the work by wiping out most of 
the remainder and providing for its complete pay- 
ment, and at the front of this triumphing column 
was this student movement, which prepared the 
way for all that followed. But the material good 
in deliverance from debt was not the only or, in- 
deed, the chief good for which this student-build- 

254 



The Church in Westerville 

ing enterprise prepared the way. It helped to keep 
the university at the front in the Christian activ- 
ities of its students, as shown in the high percent- 
age of those who profess faith in Christ, who are 
members of the Christian associations, who are en- 
rolled in Bible and mission-study classes, who be- 
long to the Student Volunteer Band, and who have 
gone forth as Christian workers in our own land 
and as missionaries to heathen lands. From eighty 
to as high as ninety-five per cent, have at times 
been professed disciples of Christ, and from sixty 
to seventy-five per cent, enrolled in Bible and mis- 
sion-study classes. 

The first student of the university that went out 
as a foreign missionary was Kev. C. 0. Wilson, 
who went to Sierra Leone, West Africa, in 1860; 
he was quickly disabled by the African fever, 
and compelled to return. Not willing to subject 
the board to expense without service, he paid the 
entire cost of the trip out of his own pocket. Miss 
Amanda Hanby, daughter of ex-Bishop Hanby, 
became the wife of Kev. J. K. Billheimer, who had 
served as a missionary in Africa since 1857, in 
1862, and accompanied him, as an associate la~ 
borer, to that field. Since these two, some twenty- 
six graduates and students have gone forth to dif- 
ferent fields as foreign missionaries, most of them 
to West Africa. In 1889 Miss Frances Williams, 
and, in 1891, Miss Elma Bittle and Miss Ella 
Schenck went to Africa, and these all sleep in the 
Dark Continent. The two first named were vic- 
tims of the African fever and the last of the mas- 
sacre of 1898. In 1894 there was a fine addition 

255 



History of Otterbein University 

to the missionary representatives in the foreign 
field in the persons of Rev. A. T. Howard and 
wife, Rev. J. R. King and wife, Miss Minnie 
Eaton, and Miss Florence Cronise, all of whom 
went to Sierra Leone, West Africa. After four 
years' service in West Africa, Rev. A. T. Howard 
and wife were sent to Japan, where they are now 
laboring. In 1896 Rev. F. S. Minshall and wife 
went to West Africa and narrowly escaped the 
massacre of 1898. Miss Mary E. Murrel went 
out in 1902, and in 1903 a company of six of the 
sons and daughters of the university were sent out 
to West Africa ; they were Rev. W. E. Riebel and 
wife, Rev. C. W. Snyder and wife, and Rev. Clay- 
ton Judy and wife. Of this company, Mrs. Riebel 
(Elsie Lambert) quickly succumbed to the climate 
and joined "Frankie" Williams, Elma Bittle, and 
Ella Schenck beyond the river. In 1905, Rev. E. 
J. Pace and wife were sent to> the Philippines and 
Rev. B. F. Bean to China, and in 1906 Dr. Frank 
Oldt and Miss Ora Maxwell (now Mrs. Oldt) 
were also sent to China and Mr. E. M. Hursh to 
Africa. All these were sent out by the boards of 
the United Brethren Church. In addition, Mrs. 
Dr. Madge Dickson Mateer, since 1889, has been 
a medical missionary for the Presbyterians in 
China, Miss Lela Guitner, since 1902, a Y. W. C. 
A. secretary in India, and Mrs. E. Barnett Eby, 
high-school teacher, Philippines, JN"o. 5. These 
noblest of the sons and daughters of the university 
have kept the eyes of the students riveted on the 
foreign missionary field, and have kept missionary 
interest glowing in their hearts. 

256 




Rev. LEWIS BOOKWALTER, D. D. 

President since 1904. 



The Church in Westerville 

To give an account of the labors of these mis- 
sionaries and set forth results which have followed 
in the lands to which they went, would require vol- 
umes. It is deemed best to give a typical case as a 
specimen of the work of these missionaries. Joseph 
Caulker was the son of George Caulker, an Afri- 
can chief or headman, who at an early age became 
connected with the African mission. He was of 
pure negro blood, though of unusually fine fea- 
tures, which is a characteristic of the Caulkers. 
He professed faith in Christ when a young boy, 
and applied himself very diligently to his studies 
and made good progress. He graduated from the 
Clark Training-School with the first class in 1896. 
Eev. L. 0. Burtner, one of our missionaries, 
brought Mr. Caulker to America in 1896, and in 
the fall of that year he entered Otterbein Univer- 
sity. By his manly bearing, pleasing manners, 
fine gifts, and noble Christian character, he 
quickly won the admiration and love of his fellow- 
students and his teachers, overcoming in a remark- 
able degree the prejudice against persons of his 
color, usually so strong. It is safe to say that no 
student ever trod the campus of the university who 
had entrenched himself more thoroughly in the 
good will and esteem of all who knew him. On 
a fateful day in December, 1900, when he had 
reached the Junior year, on returning to his room 
from a recitation, he undertook to kindle a fire 
with oil, when there was an explosion, which threw 
the burning oil over his body and he was fatally 
burned, dying next morning, December 7, 1900. 
His tragic death threw a pall of sorrow over the 

17 257 



History of Otterbein University 

university and the community. At his funeral a 
great concourse assembled to pay tribute to his 
memory. No death in the university in the past 
sixty years has been more deeply and sincerely 
mourned. Joseph Caulker, a trophy of our mis- 
sionary labor, sleeps in Otterbein cemetery, near 
the university, where a modest monument, placed 
by students and faculty, marks the resting-place of 
one whose brief life afforded a forceful illustration 
of the power of the gospel of Christ to transform 
and beautify the character of one born in a pagan 
land. 

Very appropriate is it that fifty-three years 
after the: first annual meeting of the Home, Fron- 
tier, and Foreign Missionary Society of the United 
Brethren in Christ was held in the halls of the 
university, the Foreign Missionary Society of the 
Church should meet in the halls of the same uni- 
versity in this year of grace, 1907, to review the 
work of the past and plan for the future. Very 
appropriate is it that here, in this Antioch of the 
Church, where so many precious youth have had 
their eyes directed to the great fields of the world 
white to the harvest, and, having heard the com- 
mand, "Go," have responded, "Here am I; send 
me," and then were commissioned and sent forth, 
other youth, among them another son and daughter 
of the university, should be consecrated and sent 
forth to toil in the great field of world-evangelism. 

The reader will readily believe that the growing 
religious interest in the university has had an im- 
portant bearing upon the deportment of the stu- 
dents and the order of the school. It would not do 

258 



The Church in Westerville 

to say that, in the past sixty years, there have been 
no outbreaks of disorder and epidemics of lawless- 
ness, but it will do to say that they have been very 
rare and mostly confined to the somewhat remote 
past. There has never been what might with pro- 
priety be called a case of hazing. The practice of 
tampering with the property of citizens and de- 
facing and damaging the buildings of the univer- 
sity has almost disappeared. Even the college 
tricks of milder type, sometimes taking the form 
of practical jokes, are not as much indulged in as 
formerly. The author may give a specimen trick, 
of which he was the victim, to make plain to the 
reader what he is talking about. 

To illustrate to his class in logic that a statement 
may be alternative in form when there is no alter- 
native in fact, he related the story of the master 
who sent his servant on a hunt, with the promise 
that he would divide with him the game he should 
secure. The servant returned with a wild turkey 
and a buzzard, and to accomplish the promised 
division, the master said to the servant : 

"Either I will take the turkey and you may 
have the buzzard, or you may have the buzzard and 
I will take the turkey," to which the servant re- 
plied, "You never say turkey to me once." 

Not very long after, the professor of logic, in 
preparation for an anniversary celebration, sus- 
pended a finely dressed turkey in a stoop of the 
house to cool, intending to take it in for the night, 
but forgot to do so. Next morning he went to get 
the turkey, he is obliged to confess, with some 
apprehension, and where the turkey had been sus- 

259 



History of Otterbein University 

pended hung its bones tied in a bundle, with this 
note attached : 

"Dear Doctor : Either we will take the turkey 
and you may have the bones, or you may have the 
bones and we will take the turkey. " 

The professor does not regard himself of an un- 
duly suspicious disposition, but he has always sus- 
pected that some of that logic class feasted on his 
turkey, but the parody on his class-room story was 
so clever that he never even investigated, but pro- 
cured another turkey and the anniversary celebra- 
tion proceeded without further mishap. That was 
a good many years ago, and there has been con- 
siderable progress since, but he would not regard 
it prudent, even now, to suspend another turkey 
and forget to take it in, especially not one drawn 
and dressed, ready for the roasting pan ! 

PHYSICAL CULTURE. 

Some have contended that the improved deport- 
ment of the students and the better order of the 
school are to be credited to the provision made for 
physical culture and the increased attention given 
to athletics in these later years. The truth prob- 
ably is that both the increased and more orderly 
religious and physical activities have contributed 
to the result. With some, doubtless the religious, 
with others the physical have exerted the greater 
influence, while in other cases they have been com- 
bined in about equal proportion. That the re- 
ligious and physical activities are not antagonistic, 
but harmonious, would seem to be suggested by the 
fact that they are both provided for in the univer- 

260 



The Church in Westerville 

sity, as is not uncommon elsewhere, in the same 
building. 

In the early history and for many years in the 
university, there were no athletics in the modern 
sense of the term. The physical culture of the 
early days was obtained over a saw-horse by a 
woodpile, or with a hoe in the garden, or other im- 
plement of toil in shop or field. To these the stu- 
dents resorted, not for the sake of the athletic exer- 
cise and physical culture thus to be obtained, but 
for the sake of the money to be earned to help them 
meet the expenses of their education. 

While in the seventies and early eighties of the 
last century Otterbein University had a baseball 
team which compared very favorably with the best 
college teams in the State, yet the athletic history 
of the university does not properly begin until 
1889. The "pioneers," who came into notice in 
that year, were the two Barnards, Lawrence, '94, 
and Ernest, '95; L. A. Thompson, '94, O. L. 
Shank, '95, W. A. Garst (Cffisar), '94, A. Burt- 
ner, and others. Four dollars were invested in a 
football, and amateur practice began in the "field" 
back of the main building, in a way, it is said, 
which led onlookers to conclude that football is a 
rough game. In the fall of 1890 the pioneers were 
joined by Irvin G. TCumler, '91, A. T. Howard, 
'94, M. B. Fanning, '94, F. J. Rosier, '93, and 
others. After about a month's practice there was a 
consuming desire to try conclusions with the team 
of a neighboring college ; but the team had as yet 
had no opportunity to gain a standing, so their 
overtures for a game with the Kenyon College team 

261 



History of Otterbein University- 
were declined and they had to content themselves 
to play a game with the Military Academy team of 
Kenyon. The "content" was substantial, for the 
score was 48 to 6 against them. Then they had a 
game with the Denison University team, with a 
score of 44 to against them. This sobered the 
boys. It was not the Otterbein University style of 
things. They sent to Dayton and secured "Link" 
Arte, an old Dartmouth player, to coach them for 
a week. This was of great value, and they won a 
game with Ohio State University by a score of 42 
to 6, and with Denison by a score of 12 to 10. 
These victories gave the team prominence and pres- 
tige, and they accepted an offer from the Dayton 
Y. M. 0. A. for a Thanksgiving game, in which 
they were defeated by a score of 10 to 0. In the 
season of 1892 things started off badly for the 
university team, with defeats both by the Kenyon 
and Denison teams. Then came a turning-point 
in the football history of the university. A com- 
plete new set of plays and signals was devised, a 
training-table was started, and close attention was 
given to practice, and then, on the Saturday before 
Thanksgiving, they defeated the Wittenberg Col- 
lege team by a score of 52 to 0. On Thanksgiving 
they went to Dayton, determined to retrieve the 
disastrous defeat of the year before in a game with 
Dayton Y. M. C. A. team, and they did it, to the 
great surprise and chagrin of the Dayton team, by 
a score of 16 to 6. This victory carried the name 
of the team and of the university all over the State, 
and, indeed, the United States. One of the players 
thus expressed the feeling with which the victory 

262 



The Church in Westerville 

was regarded : "What we did to that Dayton team 
was almost enough to make the trees on the old 
campns yell for joy." It was recognized as the 
Otterbein University way of doing things. What 
has been said is sufficient to indicate the general 
spirit of these university teams and the attitude of 
the students toward them ever since. 

The Athletic Association was organized in 1890, 
and the first field sports were held on Founders 7 
Day, April 26 of that year. There were no direc- 
tors of physical culture until 1894. Miss E. 
Luella Fonts served in this position for four years, 
though not continuously; Hanby E. Jones served 
for the year 1897-8 ; D. J. Good, for the two years 
1898-00 ; Miss Tallmadge A. Eickey, for the four 
years 1900-04; Chester 0. Yale, 1900-01; Joseph 
O. Ervin, 1900-03; Hersey E. Keene, 1903-05; 
Nellis E. Funk, 1903-04; Miss Olivia Milne, 
1904; J. E. Kalmbach, 1906. 

The match games have been either in baseball, 
football, or basket-ball. The gymnasium has been 
of great service to the university, and is constantly 
coming into greater and more effective use. As 
to football, there is great sympathy with the idea 
of relieving it, as far as practicable, from its rough 
and otherwise objectionable features, but very 
little with the idea of abolishing the game itself. 
There have been injuries of a more or less serious 
nature, but no fatalities among the students who 
have participated in these games. Upon the whole, 
while there have been incidental evils in connec- 
tion with athletics as found in the university, the 
good has far exceeded the evil. 

263 



History of Otterbein University 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

Music — Art — Normal Instruction — Library — College Jour- 
nals — Other Features. 

There is no reference to instruction in mnsic 
in Otterbein University until the catalogue of 
1853, and then only by the appearance of the name 
of Miss Cornelia A. Walker as teacher of music 
and drawing. From other reliable sources it is 
learned that President L. Davis brought the first 
piano to the university, and to Westerville, in 
1852. It was placed in the ladies' hall, and Mrs. 
Matilda G. Carpenter, a sister-in-law of Mrs. Pro- 
fessor John Haywood, gave lessons on this instru- 
ment in 1852, and so was the first to teach music 
in the university. As this solitary piano, however, 
had to serve for both teaching and practice, it is 
plain that the musical instruction was not very ex- 
tensive. Miss Walker was a daughter of Professor 
R. M. Walker, and served as music teacher for five 
years, first from 1853 to 1856, and then from 1859 
to 1861. During the interval of two years, from 
1856 to 1858, Mr. John Syler appears as teacher 
of both vocal and instrumental music. Mr. Syler 
appears as the first teacher of vocal music. Among 
a number of teachers of both vocal and instru- 
mental music who taught for but one year, appear 
a number who taught for a series of years, as Miss 
Lydia M. Winter, 1863 to 1866, and the same per- 
son as Mrs. Professor Guitner, from 1866 to 1869, 

264 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

instrumental; John M. Bigger, instrumental, 
1872-4; C. A. Bowersox, vocal, 1872-4; Miss Min- 
nie King, instrumental, 1875-8, and E. S. Lorenz, 
vocal, 1876-80. Some of these teachers, as 0. A. 
Bowersox and E. S. Lorenz, were students at the 
time they taught vocal music. Music was taught 
during those early years very much on the princi- 
ple of supplying a demand, without reference to 
any prescribed course, and so not contemplating 
graduation. Instruction was given very much ac- 
cording to the wishes of students, of course largely 
controlled by their stage of advancement. The uni- 
versity gave accommodations in the rooms of the 
main college-building until 1888, when the pres- 
ent Davis Conservatory building was acquired, 
partly as a gift from Bev. L. Davis and wife, and 
has since been occupied by the director of music, 
while portions of the Christian Association build- 
ing and other buildings have been used as the 
growth of the department demanded. In these 
early years the teachers as a rule depended upon 
the tuition paid by the pupils for their compen- 
sation, usually receiving the whole amount, but 
sometimes paying the university a small per cent, 
to pay for fuel and janitor service. At times it 
has been necessary for the university, in order to 
secure capable teachers, to guarantee a certain sal- 
ary, paying the deficit if the tuition fell short of 
the amount guaranteed. 

The attention given to musical instruction in 
the university had the same wholesome and liberal- 
izing effect upon the Church that its academic 
teaching had. When Otterbein University was 

265 



History of Otterbein University 

founded, there was an intense and very general 
sentiment against church choirs and the use of 
musical instruments in connection with worship. 
Indeed, this sentiment was so strong that for many 
years it was embodied in a law of the Church for- 
bidding choirs and instrumental music in the wor- 
ship of the sanctuary. For the university, how- 
ever, to give careful attention to voice culture and 
to imparting skill in instrumental music, only to 
be put under the ban by the Church, involved an 
absurdity which was bound to manifest itself in 
time to the thoughtful members of the Church. It 
was a foregone conclusion that this prohibition 
would fall before the advancing musical skill of the 
devout young people gathered in our colleges. So 
the General Conference of 1869, which met in 
Lebanon, Pa., removed the prohibition, but still 
left the following advisory clause : 

"We would counsel our societies to avoid the 
introduction of choirs and instrumental music into 
their worship. " 

It required, however, a long, and at times some- 
what bitter controversy, to secure this modification 
of the regulation of the Church, With the General 
Conference of 1885 all reference to choirs and in- 
strumental music disappeared from the Discipline 
of the Church. As a curious illustration of the 
sentiment in the United Brethren Church during 
this prohibitive period, a case which occurred on a 
charge which the author served in the 60's of the 
last century is given. A cabinet organ was in use 
in the Sabbath school in the basement room of the 
church, to which there seemed to be no objection ; 

266 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

but on the occasion of a special young people's 
service in the audience room above, without the 
pastor's knowledge, the young people sought and 
obtained from a trustee of the church permission 
to take the organ upstairs, to be played during 
the young people's service. While preaching he 
noticed a devout sister, a teacher in the Sab- 
bath school, weeping rather freely. The preacher 
felt encouraged. "Surely the Word is taking 
hold," thought he. But what was his astonish- 
ment when the good sister, immediately after the 
benediction, rushed forward to the pulpit and de- 
manded a letter from the church ! When asked to 
explain, she dolefully cast her eyes toward the 
organ and said : "That organ has robbed me of my 
church home, and I want a letter." When asked 
where she proposed to join, if given a letter, she 
named a Methodist church in the same part of the 
city. On being reminded that an organ had long 
been in use in worship there, her reply was : "But 
they have no rule against it there." A visit and a 
little kind interchange of thought calmed the good 
sister, and she remained in the Church from which 
she has long since gone to her eternal home. It 
has been the mission of Otterbein University, as 
the first college of the Church, to lead the way in 
bringing deliverance from many prejudices and 
erroneous notions which formerly hindered and 
limited the Church in its work. 

Prof. W. L. Todd was the first teacher of music 
who was recognized as a regular professor, instead 
of simply an instructor. He was a thoroughgoing 
teacher, and first devised a full course of musical 

267 



History of Otterbein University 

instruction leading to graduation. He began his 
service in the university in 187S, and served for 
nine years, the record term up to that time, which 
was terminated by his death in 1887. Besides Mr. 
E. S. Lorenz, already mentioned. Miss Laura E. 
Rosier, Mr. E. 0. McFadon, and Miss Lydia K. 
Resler served as teachers of vocal music, while W. 
L. Todd was professor of instrumental music. Mrs. 
W. L. Todd, widow of the professor, and her sister, 
Miss Nellie Fliekinger, with Jacob Goebel, who 
taught on the violin, were instructors in instru- 
mental music, and Miss E. Prockie Coggeshall 
instructor of vocal music after the death of Pro- 
fessor W. L. Todd. From 1888 regular profes- 
sors of music were again elected, and E. C. Davis, 
Frederick Neddermeyer, Robert A. Morrow, W. 
B. Kinnear, and Herman Ebeling served in this 
position down to 1895, when Professor Gustav 
Meyer was elected, and has served with increasing 
popularity and success ever since, a period of 
twelve years, which is the record period in the past 
sixty years. For two years Professor Meyer, 
according to custom, received the tuition fees as his 
compensation ; but his work was so successful and 
satisfactory that the Conservatory Board of Con- 
trol, which had been instrumental in securing his 
services, recommended that he be paid a salary of 
$1,200. As the board had been compelled, prior 
to his coming, to pay deficits on a guarantee of 
$800, the recommendation was adopted with some 
hesitation, but the result abundantly justified their 
action. The first year under salary, 1898, yielded 
a surplus of over $300 above cost of instruction, 

26S 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

and the department has prospered and grown until 
the receipts have been quintupled. As faithful as 
he is competent, Professor Meyer has built up the 
department into a measure of strength and effi- 
ciency which reflects great credit upon the director 
and the university. 

Numerous faithful and capable instructors have 
borne part in the work since 1888, but to present 
their service in detail would require much repeti- 
tion. Their names, with terms of service and the 
nature of the instruction given, will be found in 
Appendix A, to which the reader is referred. 

Voluntary musical organizations have existed 
from an early date in one or another form, almost 
continuously to the present time. One of the early 
organizations was a brass band in the 50's of the 
last century, which was led by Prof. Thos. McFad- 
den, which later went into the service with the 
46th Regiment, O. V. I. Prof. L. H. Hammond 
also led an orchestra for a time during his service 
in the university. There have also been college 
and literary society orchestras, quartets and glee 
clubs, both of lady and gentlemen students, some 
of which attained to high excellence and popular- 
ity. A large majority of those who have pursued 
musical studies have been ladies, and the alumnal 
register shows that the ladies constitute an over- 
whelming majority of those who have graduated 
from the Davis Conservatory of Music. 

ART. 

There is no reference to teaching art in the uni- 
versity until 1853, and then only by the appear- 



History of Otterbein University 

ance of the name of Miss Cornelia A. Walker as 
teacher of music and drawing. In 1862, however, 
Mrs. Harriet E. Thompson first appears in the 
catalogue as teacher of painting and drawing, and, 
except an interval of four years, from 1868 to 
1872, served continuously until 1893, a period of 
twenty-seven years, which is not only the record 
period of this department, but in all adjunct de- 
partments. Until quite recently teachers of art 
were paid no salary, but depended upon the tuition 
paid by the students, the whole of which the teach- 
ers received. Indeed, for many years the cat- 
alogues do not indicate how many or what students 
studied art. Even the students in music are not 
separately classified until 1874, and it would seem 
that no account was taken of those who studied 
only music or art. Those who pursued other 
studies in any of the regular courses appeared in 
their proper classifications. Mrs. Thompson is the 
wife of Rev. H. A. Thompson, who served the uni- 
versity as professor and president for twenty 
years. She is a capable teacher and a fine artist. 
Some of her oil portraits have been much admired, 
notably those of Dr. L. Davis and his wife, and of 
Professor Thomas McEadden, and her husband, 
which hang in the library room. 

Mrs. Thompson was succeeded in 1893 by Miss 
Isabel Sevier (now Mrs. Professor Scott), as 
principal of the art department, and has served 
continuously to the present time. It is a note- 
worthy fact, therefore, that these two teachers 
cover a period of forty-one years, and their work 
reaches back to 1862, when Mrs. Thompson began 

270 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

her work forty-five years ago. Prior to Mrs. 
Scott, however, the art teaching and work 
was of a somewhat miscellaneous character, 
designed, like the earlier instruction in music, to 
meet a demand rather than afford a systematic and 
complete art education. There was no course lead- 
ing to graduation, excellent as was the teaching. 
Since Mrs. Scott has been in charge she has greatly 
developed the department, and the patronage has 
largely increased. A technical course in seven 
classes of art work, with instruction in the history 
and criticism of art, has been devised, leading to 
graduation. The first graduate of the department 
went forth in 1898. A large majority of the stu- 
dents, and thus far all the graduates of the depart- 
ment, have been ladies. 

NORMAL INSTRUCTION. 

The general policy of Otterbein University 
through all its history has been to hold itself some- 
what rigorously to regular college work, and allow 
nothing to interfere with or turn it aside from this 
grade of work. Whatever adjunct department it 
deemed to be important to establish, it stood 
ready to admit, but not to the neglect or detriment 
of properly college work. This one work it must do, 
even if all adjunct departments must be excluded. 
It has never allowed the alternative to be a college 
or conservatory of music, or an art school, or a nor- 
mal school. The position has always been a col- 
lege, and, if possible, a conservatory of music, an 
art and normal school. It has not always been 
easy to maintain this high ground. In the late 80's 

271 



History of Otterbein University 

of the last century, the colleges of Ohio especially 
were subjected to great temptation to turn aside to 
normal school work. Some private normal schools, 
by their high pretensions to superiority at the very 
time that they were shortening courses and 
cheapening degrees, were attracting large numbers 
of young people by their proposed short-cuts to 
graduation. In number of students, for which at 
the time there was a great rage, these normal 
schools were achieving a phenomenal success, their 
attendance in some instances swelling even into 
the thousands. Some of the friends of the college 
were well nigh swept from their feet by the boasted 
success of the normal schools, and seemed inclined 
to believe that unless the colleges should yield to 
the pressure, lower their standards, and engage 
largely in normal school work, they would be com- 
peted to death by these noisy and apparently suc- 
cessful normal schools. It was very fortunate that 
the efforts to unify and elevate the standard of 
Ohio colleges by the Ohio College Association, de- 
scribed in a previous chapter, occurred in the years 
immediately preceding this normal school raid, 
for they had emphasized the importance of high- 
grade and standard college work, and fortified the 
colleges against lowering their standards and 
shortening their courses of study, and so helped 
them maintain the high standards they had with 
so much labor established. 

There was also another movement, not so well 
judged as that of the Ohio College Association, 
which aided the colleges in maintaining their high 
standard against this demoralizing normal school 

272 




a « 

3 



c 

be !« 

2 2 
pq >> 




* 



:: :: r ', $ 




Music, Art, and Other Features 

competition. It was the movement to establish 
post-graduate courses, and to attempt work be- 
yond the properly college grade. This movement 
affords a rather fine illustration of one question- 
able extreme helping to neutralize and cure an- 
other. The establishment of post-graduate courses 
was a strain upward which tended to counteract 
the pull downward of normal school competition. 
This pull and counter-pull of forces, so far as 
Otterbein University is concerned, enabled the in- 
stitution to pass through a very trying period in its 
history without lowering its standard, and led it, 
of its own motion, to abandon courses to properly 
maintain which it was neither equipped nor 
manned. Such attention as the university could 
give to the needs of teachers while maintaining 
at standard grade its regular college courses, which, 
after all, afford the really solid equipment for the 
work of teaching, it has given, while it has con- 
fined its normal instruction, of a properly profes- 
sional character, to its summer school. 

So far as the university has given encourage- 
ment to a school of commerce, it has been in order 
to meet a demand, so far as it could be done, with- 
out detriment to the regular college work. The 
theory has been that students pursuing business 
studies in the surroundings and atmosphere of the 
university are more apt to be impressed with the 
importance of a regular collegiate course of study, 
and are much more likely to enter upon it, than 
when pursuing business studies in an exclusively 
business college. 

18 273 



History of Otterbein University 

JOUENALISM. 

Journalism was agitated in Otterbein Univer- 
sity as early as 1852, when the Board of Trustees 
heartily recommended the publication of a mag- 
azine, but there is no evidence that the project ever 
got beyond this resolution stage. In 1864, twelve 
years later, the Board of Trustees again recom- 
mended the publication of a magazine, authorizing 
the issue of the first number as soon as two thou- 
sand subscribers should be obtained. This require- 
ment of two thousand advance subscribers proved 
practically prohibitive, and gave a quietus to a col- 
lege journal for another twelve years when, in Jan- 
uary, 1876, the first number of the Otterbein Dial 
was issued under the auspices of the faculty and 
students of the university. Professor J. E. Guitner 
served as managing editor, and Professor Thomas 
McPadden as publisher, and the remaining mem- 
bers of the faculty as editorial contributors, 
while the students were encouraged to contribute. 
It was a very respectable college journal, as any 
one who is familiar with the literary ability of 
Professor Guitner would expect. The journal was 
issued monthly, ten months in a year, at $1.00 per 
year. The journal was undoubtedly useful to the 
university, but as the members of the faculty were 
heavily burdened with work before they assumed 
this gratuitous editorial service, the journal proved 
to be short lived. In 1880 the first number of the 
Otterbein Record, with Rev. J. S. Mills (now 
bishop), as managing editor, with students occu- 
pying all other positions, was issued. There is 
evidence that the original intention was to have 

274 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

members from all the college societies represented, 
but it became, in time, the distinctive project of 
the Philophronean Literary Society. Prof. J. E. 
Guitner succeeded Kev. J. S. Mills as managing 
editor, who in turn was succeeded by J. P. Sin- 
clair, a student, who served until the suspension of 
the journal in 1885. It was an excellent college 
journal, well edited, and it faithfully and impar- 
tially represented the interests and reflected the 
life of the university. 

In 1890 the Otterbein Aegis, of the same gen- 
eral character, and under the same auspices, was 
established and has ever since been issued by the 
Philophronean Publishing Company. It is a 
monthly, issued ten months in the year, at the very 
reasonable subscription rate of fifty cents per an- 
num. It has well maintained the high standard 
of its predecessor, the Record, and has not simply 
chronicled the events of importance in the local 
work of the university and the notable achieve- 
ments of its sons and daughters abroad, but has 
put to record much of the best literary output of 
the university during the period of its publication. 
It has been very loyal and faithful to the univer- 
sity, and has rendered very effective service in pro- 
moting its interests and welfare. 

BUILDINGS. 

Incidentally most of the buildings have already 
been mentioned, and not much more need be said 
about them. The two original buildings, the frame 
chapel, and the brick dormitory, long since ceased 
to be used for college purposes, though a portion 

275 



History of Otterbein University 

of the frame, built about 1839, has quite recently 
again come into the possession of the university; 
the Flick lot, at the northeast corner of Grove and 
Park streets, on the north side of which it stands, 
having been purchased by the university. Since 
its removal from the campus in the 70's, it has 
been used as a residence, and many students have 
from time to time occupied rooms in it. The three- 
story brick dormitory, sometimes to distinguish it 
from Saum Hall, called the old ladies' hall, the 
adjective "old" qualifying hall, and not ladies, was 
torn down in 1871, and the brick were used in the 
present main building, as has been before stated. 
The only other building which has gone out of 
service is the main building which was destroyed 
by fire in 1870, an account of which has been 
given. The buildings now in service in the work 
of the university, including the heating-plant and 
president's residence, are seven. The oldest of the 
buildings which remain is Saum Science Hall, 
erected in 1855, originally as a gentlemen's dor- 
mitory, later used as a ladies' dormitory, and in 
1898 remodeled into a science hall. It is a rec- 
tangle 75x30, three stories, and is occupied by the 
professors of physics and chemistry, and biology 
and geology, and contains chemical, physical, and 
biological laboratories, with cabinets of minerals 
and plants, and equipment for all the students the 
building will accommodate. Its original cost was 
about $5,600. A larger and better science hall is 
one of the urgent needs of the university. 

The Davis Conservatory building, standing on 
the northeast corner of Grove street and College 

276 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

Avenue, was built in 1856 by President L. Davis, 
as a residence, and was occupied by him until 
1871, when he was called to a professorship in 
Union Biblical Seminary, Dayton, Ohio. In 1888 
the property came into the possession of the uni- 
versity, partly as a gift, partly by purchase, and 
has since been used as a conservatory. The depart- 
ment of music has quite outgrown the accommoda- 
tions afforded by this building, and the proposition 
of Mr. George A. Lambert, of Anderson, Indiana, 
a stanch friend and liberal benefactor of the uni- 
versity, to give $25,000 for a conservatory and art 
building, is most opportune. 

The main building, of which some account has 
already been given, stands in the east middle of 
the beautiful campus of eight acres, is a fine struc- 
ture, fronting east, facing the west end of College 
Avenue, the central part rising three stories above 
the basement, 170x104, and was erected in 
1870-71. Besides commodious recitation-rooms, it 
contains the library rooms, art rooms, four ele- 
gantly furnished literary society halls, and the 
college chapel. It also contains the offices of the 
president and the treasurer of the university, and 
in the basement the living rooms of the janitor and 
his family. The building cost about $40,000, is 
in good condition, after having been in service for 
thirty-six years, and is still well adapted to the 
purposes of the university. 

The Christian Association and gymnasium 
building was erected in 1892-93, at a cost of about 
$16,500. It stands on the southeast corner of the 
campus, covering the ground on which the white 

277 



History of Otterbein University 

frame chapel, the original main building, used to 
stand. A sufficient account of it is given in the 
preceding chapter. 

The power-house of the heating-plant, erected 
during the present college year, a sightly building 
of concrete block, stands on the college campus 
directly west of the main college-building and the 
athletic grounds on Maple Street. The entire plant 
was put in at a cost of about $20,000, and heats 
all the buildings of the university. The univer- 
sity is indebted to John W. Euth, the Thomas 
brothers, W. E. and James P., W. W. Dempsey, 
E. M. Gross, and others for generous gifts for this 
fine heating-plant. 

The president's residence is the Walker-Good- 
speed-Sibel house, which stood on the southeast 
corner of Grove and Home streets. The older 
students will remember it as the residence which 
Ealph M. Walker built and occupied while a pro- 
fessor in the university. It stood on the site now 
occupied by the Cochran Memorial Hall. It was 
moved across Grove Street to the north end of the 
Saum Science Hall lot. In its new location it has 
been remodeled and greatly improved, and is 
henceforth to serve as the residence of the pres- 
ident. 

Cochran Memorial Hall, the last of the seven 
buildings of the university now in service, was 
erected during the sixtieth anniversary year, and 
was first occupied by the lady students, for whose 
comfort it was built, at the opening of the winter 
term in January last. It is a splendid building, 
capable of receiving to its up-to-date and unsur- 

278 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

passed conveniences and comforts at its full 
capacity, seventy-eight girls. The building fronts 
100 feet on Grove Street, by 86 feet on Home 
Street. From the basement to the third floor the 
walls are of concrete and cement blocks, and from 
the third floor to the fifth floor of the roof story 
they are of Everal brick, with every floor in ser- 
vice. For this fine and much-needed building the 
university is indebted to Mrs. Sarah B. Cochran, 
of Dawson, Pa., who gave $31,000, the entire sum 
needed for its erection. It stands as a fitting and 
beautiful memorial of her noble husband, Philip 
G. Cochran, who in the early 60's and 70's of the 
last century trod the campus and frequented the 
halls of the university as a student; at the same 
time it will be a blessing to generation after 
generation of gifted and aspiring girls, to whom it 
will afford a pleasant home while, as students, they 
are preparing themselves to bear a worthy part in 
the world's great field of service. This generous 
gift of Mrs. Cochran, which she has since in- 
creased by $5,000 to the endowment, practically 
one gift of $36,000, is altogether the largest single 
gift the university has ever received, and it is a 
fitting climax and crown of sixty years of benefac- 
tions. The university has had other very liberal 
benefactors in the past sixty years, as John Hulitt, 
of Hillsboro, and George A. Lambert, of Ander- 
son, Indiana, whose propositions to the university, 
when fully executed, will leave them little in the 
rear, if they do not indeed bring them to Mrs. 
Cochran's side. So, also, D. L. Rike, of blessed 
memory, will not fall very far short; while Solo- 

279 



History of Otterbein University 

mon Keister, now deceased, and his family, and 
John Thomas, Sr., and his family, and Mrs. Har- 
riet Smith, and others will not follow very far off. 

LIBRARIES. 

The humble beginnings of the libraries of the 
university and of the literary societies, and of 
their destruction by fire in 1870, have already 
been set forth, and it remains simply to state their 
present extent and character. The college library, 
which now includes the libraries of the Philoma- 
thean and Philophronean societies, contains over 
twelve thousand volumes and about half as many 
pamphlets. Reading tables, supplied with the best 
magazines and papers, are maintained by the uni- 
versity, and by each of the four literary societies. 
For reading and reference all books and magazines 
are free to all students ; for withdrawal of books, 
the college library is free to all students, and the 
Philomathean and Philophronean to members. 

The college library is classified and catalogued 
according to the Dewey system, and all is made 
readily accessible by means of classification, in- 
dexes, bibliographies, etc. The library is open six 
hours each school day, and two hours on Saturday, 
and students are encouraged to use its resources 
freely as aids to class-room, work and to general 
culture. 

The matriculation fee of one dollar per year 
paid by each student, is devoted to the purchase of 
books for the library, and a number of volumes are 
received each year by gift. The gentlemen's liter- 
ary societies have gathered small endowments, by 

280 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

means of the revenue from this additions are 
made to their libraries from time to time, but the 
college library has had no endowment. A recent 
addition of over $20,000 has been made to the 
endowment to meet the condition of a proposition 
of $20,000 from Andrew Carnegie to erect a li- 
brary building, the proceeds of which will be avail- 
able for the keeping up of the library. 

Since 1871 the college and society libraries have 
been kept in two large rooms, opening into each 
other, in the central front second floor of the main 
college-building. In recent years it has been found 
necessary to bring into service another room ad- 
joining on the south, but with no opening between, 
as an annex. The crowded and exposed condition 
of the library in these rooms renders the gift of 
Mr. Carnegie for a library building very oppor- 
tune. The plans for the building have been ap- 
proved, and it will doubtless be erected at an early 
day, on the lot now occupied by the conservatory 
building, the university having recently purchased 
what is known as the Cooper corner, southeast cor- 
ner of Grove Street and College Avenue, for the 
new conservatory and art building. 

RHETORIC AND PUBLIC SPEAKING. 

From the beginning instruction and drill in 
composition and public speaking was given in 
some form. In the catalogue of 1848, the first 
ever issued, appear these words: "Particular at- 
tention is given to composition and declamation. 
Each student is required to read a composition 
every alternate Saturday, and two declamations 

281 



History of Otterbein University 

are made each morning in the presence of the 
school." When the number of students increased, 
they were divided into what were called rhetorical 
classes, which were assigned to different professors 
and met weekly, usually on Saturday morning. 
Later it became the custom to hold, besides these 
private rhetorical exercises, public rhetorical exer- 
cises, in which only the advance students took part. 
These public rhetorical exercises attracted great 
audiences, and students generally greatly prized 
the privilege of participating in them. These pub- 
lic rhetoricals were at first held monthly, later at 
longer intervals, and finally were entirely aban- 
doned. At a later date, when the university made 
better provision for rhetorical instruction in its 
courses of study, these weekly rhetorical exercises 
were discontinued. The university, however, con- 
tinued to encourage special rhetorical instruction 
by permitting professional elocutionists to organ- 
ize voluntary classes for instruction, at the expense 
of the students who attended them. Teachers of 
elocution and oratory have at other times been 
members of the faculty as instructors, depending 
upon the tuition paid by the students for this in- 
struction for their compensation. At the present 
time there is a regular professor of elocution and 
public speaking, and his work is incorporated in 
the courses offered by the university. For a num- 
ber of years the students have maintained an ora- 
torical association, and have participated in inter- 
collegiate contests, sometimes winning and some- 
times losing, but, upon the whole, in a way to win 
credit for themselves and reflect credit upon the 

282 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

university. The ability of graduates and students 
of the university, both men and women, to think 
upon their feet, and present their thoughts upon 
the public platform with skill and force, has long 
been noted. 

It has before been explained how the fact that 
Otterbein University was an anti-slavery center, 
and an active temperance champion in the days 
before the war, attracted to its platform dis- 
tinguished representatives of both these reforms. 
From an early day, too, lecture courses have been 
sustained in one way and another, sometimes by 
the literary societies, sometimes by the senior 
class, and sometimes by the Church and other 
Christian organizations; but no method ever so 
united all classes in support of high-grade courses 
of lectures and entertainments as what has been 
known as the Citizen's Lecture Course, organized 
some fifteen years ago, and continued every year 
since. The policy of this course has been that no 
one make money, but that the patrons receive the 
full value of all the money realized in entertain- 
ments. This policy has enabled the management 
to offer six high-grade lectures and entertainments 
for the nominal sum of one dollar for the season. 
By this method the revenue has been sufficient, not 
simply to sustain the course, but frequently to offer 
one or more extra entertainments without increase 
of cost. The revenue from the course the past sea- 
son was over $800. 

The university, as yet, has no fund of conse- 
quence to aid needy students. The children of 
itinerant and superannuated ministers of the 

283 



History of Otterbein University 

Church are admitted at a rate reduced by about 
one-third the regular tuition, and the general 
Board of Education of the Church, upon applica- 
tion, gives some aid to needy students who are pre- 
paring for the ministry or for missionary work. 
Some years ago Mr. George E. Welshans, of 
Bedington, West Virginia, gave $1,000 to establish 
the George E. Welshans Memorial Scholarship, the 
proceeds to be used to aid needy and worthy stu- 
dents. It is to be hoped that many other scholar- 
ships of similar character may be established. The 
tuition fee of $50 per annum, while moderate, 
when added to other necessary expenses makes a 
heavy sum, and the worthy poor need and deserve 
help. 

SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The commencement of 1897 was the semi-cen- 
tennial anniversary of the founding of Otterbein 
University, and it was deemed well to signalize 
the occasion by a suitable celebration. The fol- 
lowing account of it appeared in the Otterbein 
Aegis, the college journal, and will give the reader 
a good idea of the occasion : 

"On the morning of June 23, just as the sun be- 
gan to shoot its rays over the village, the old col- 
lege bell began to peal out over the village, an- 
nouncing to the people the semi-centennial and 
day of golden jubilee of Otterbein University. 
Early in the day the village was all activity, and 
from every store, shop, and residence, beautiful 
flags were floating and playing in the wind. The 
village put on its best attire in commemoration of 
the day and the event. Everybody was happy, and 

284 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

the greetings of old alumni and ex-students so 
abounded that it seemed as if all the graduates and 
ex-students had returned once more to the college. 
iSTo one was happier than our good President San- 
ders. In fact, all the members of the faculty, their 
wives and children, had a kindly greeting for each 
and all. 

''For the happy celebration of this event every- 
body about the college had worked enthusiastically 
and earnestly; and how well they did their work 
those who were here to participate alone can 
testify. But it was a grand success in every par- 
ticular, and praise and credit cannot be too largely 
bestowed upon those who contributed so much to 
the success of the occasion. 

"We give the program in full, as it was fol- 
lowed on that day. It would be rich and profitable 
reading, and of great permanent value, to have in 
print all the addresses and the doings of the sev- 
eral classes in their reunions; but this is beyond 
the possibilities of the Aegis. The program as 
presented was carried out in full, and our readers 
need only to read carefully to understand as well 
as we have space to tell of the memorable event. 

MASS-MEETING IN COLLEGE CHAPEL. 

Invocation — By Rev. George A. Funkhouser, D.D., 
LL.D., Class '68, Dayton, Ohio. 

Music — "Wedding March" Mendelssohn 

Misses Martha Newcomb, Honori Cornell, Ada 
Bovey, Pearl Seeley, Edith Updegrave, and 
Effie Richer. 

Historical Sketch — Ex-President Henry Garst, D.D., 
Class '61, Westerville, Ohio. 

2S5 



History of Otterbein University 

Memorial Address — Ex-President H. A. Thompson, D.D., 
LL.D., Dayton, Ohio. 

Semi-Centennial Ode — Mrs. L. K. Miller, M.A., Class 
'58, Dayton, Ohio. 

"Otterbein University and the Education of Woman" — 
Mrs. L. R. Harford, M.A., Class '72, Omaha, Neb. 

Music — "Galop di Bravoura" Schulhoff 

Misses Ada Bovey, Pearl Seeley, Effie Richer, 
and Edith Updegrave. 

"The Future Work of Otterbein" — Bishop E. B. Kephart, 
D.D., LL.D., Class '65, Baltimore, Md. 

2: 00 p. m. 

Class Reunions, Reunions of Former Students, and 
Trustees. 

3: 30 p. m. (sharp.) 

Grand Parade of Trustees, Professors, Graduates by 

Classes, Students, Friends, Citizens. 

(Line of March: From the college east on College 

Avenue to State Street, north on State to Main, 

west on Main to Saum Hall, thence to College 

Campus.) 

4: 00 p. m. 

Mass-Meeting in front of Main College Building. 
Addresses by Bishop J. W. Hott, D.D., Rev. W. J. 
Shuey, and others. 

"While the speeches in the forenoon were all of 
the very host, yet the greatest attraction of the day 
was the parade of the afternoon. All the graduat- 
ing classes except those of '57, '62, '63, '67, '71, 
'73, '79, and '80 were represented. A register was 
kept and about one hundred and thirty alumni 
were in the parade. It was a grand and imposing 
scene as the big line of alumni, students, and citi- 
zens, headed by Messrs. Jacob Beard and Jonathan 
Park, students here in 1847 when the college 
started, marched down the College Avenue and 

286 



Music, Art, and Other Features 

back on Main to Saum Hall and to the campus, 
where the final speeches occurred. Class yells and 
songs of every description were heard, and every- 
body thoroughly enjoyed the whole affair. It was 
a memorable occasion, and all who joined in may 
well feel proud of the part they took. The day 
closed with the alumnal celebration and banquet." 
It is interesting to note that all who spoke at the 
semi-centennial celebration and golden jubilee ten 
years ago, except the two bishops, E. B. Kephart 
and J. W. Hott, are now, on this sixtieth anniver- 
sary and diamond jubilee of the university, still 
living. 



287 



History of Otterbein University 



CHAPTEE XV. 

Early History of Westerville — Its Growth and Progress. 

Westerville had an educational purpose from 
its origin. Mathew and Peter Westervelt, sub- 
stantial farmers, owned the land on which it 
stands. In 1838 Mathew gave twenty-five acres, 
and Peter two adjoining acres, to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, for the purpose of founding 
the Blendon Young Men's Seminary. Eight acres 
were reserved for a campus, and the remaining 
nineteen acres were platted into lots and sold for 
the benefit of the seminary, and became the town 
of Westerville, the name Westervelt being changed 
to Westerville. In 1839, after a heavy maple 
forest had been cleared off the eight acres reserved 
for a campus, the two buildings before described 
were erected, and the seminary began, with Rev. 
I. C. Kingsley as principal. How this property 
came into the possession of the United Brethren 
Church and became Otterbein University, in 
1847, is explained in a previous chapter. At the 
time of the transfer Westerville was very young 
and very small, with one principal north and 
south street, called State Street, from the State 
Road, from Columbus to Cleveland, of which it 
forms a part. The college buildings are on a 
parallel street, two squares west, called Grove 

288 



11 

■J. 1 



• 6 



>V o ?? 



p • 2. 
£ p ? 



® * £ ^ 

3 s I a 

2 5 <-► 



►fl t^ - J *"> 

I Is ^ 



g. Q F 

33' E* 



o • P 



7: » 




Growth and Progress in Westerville 

Street. There were two short parallel streets west 
of Grove Street, now called Maple and West 
streets, Maple Street bounding the college campus 
on the west. There were two intersecting east and 
west streets, now Park Street and College Avenue. 
The present Main Street was a driveway which, 
from State to Grove streets, could hardly be called 
a street, because a deep swamp covered it and adja- 
cent ground and rendered it impassable, especially 
after a heavy rain. From Grove it extended only 
to West Street. The outlet west was by Park 
Street, which passes the college campus on the 
south; it then extended to Alum Creek, which 
was crossed by a ford when the water was not too 
high, giving the most direct route to Worthington. 
Later a bridge was constructed over Alum Creek 
on the extension of Main Street, the ford being 
abandoned, and Park Street has since ended at 
West Street. College Avenue then extended only 
from Grove Street to State, but when the C. A. and 
C. Railroad was built the avenue was extended to 
reach the station, and to the east corporation line. 
In 1847 there were no streets extending east in- 
tersecting State Street, and no streets parallel to 
State east of State. Then the outlet east was by 
the road called Bishop's Lane, now Walnut Street, 
about one-fourth of a mile south of College Ave- 
nue, and by the county road at the north corpora- 
tion line, as now. 

The only means of reaching Westerville by pub- 
lic conveyance in those early days was by a hack 
which ran to Columbus and back every other day, 
carrying also the mail. The author's first trip to 

19 289 



History of Otterbein University 

Westerville as a student in 1853, when a lad of 
seventeen, illustrates the difficulties and uncer- 
tainties of this mode of conveyance. He reached 
Columbus on the off day, when no hack ran, so he 
hired a liveryman to take him out in a buggy. 
After a tedious drive a little town, which the 
driver said was Westerville, was reached, and a 
massive old-fashioned brick building in a large 
campus was pointed out as Otterbein University. 
The lad never having seen Westerville, accepted 
the driver's statement without question. The 
driver halted in front of a small frame building 
which he said was the hotel, when he alighted and 
his trunk was taken into the front room, and din- 
ner was ordered, while the driver proceeded to the 
stable with horse and buggy. Soon a group of tall, 
angular young men, evidently students, entered 
the room and surveyed the strange youth with in- 
quiring looks. Presently the tallest of the group 
noticed the card on his trunk directed to Wester- 
ville, and substantially the following dialogue 
was carried on between the tall young man and 
the lad : 

Tall Young Man: "Are you going to Wester- 
ville ?" 

Lad (in astonishment) : "Am I not in Wester- 
ville?" 

Tall Young Man: "You are not." 
Lad: "Well, where am I then?" 
Tall Young Man : "In Central College, sir." 
Lad : "Where, then, is Westerville ?" 
Tall Young Man: "Three miles northwest 
across the country." 

290 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

The lad at once hastened to the stable and in- 
formed the driver of the discovery he had made. 
The driver replied that he must have mistaken 
the road, and promised to take him to Westerville 
after dinner, which he did. 

When the lad learned of the rather intense 
rivalry which at that time existed between the 
Central College Academy and Otterbein Univer- 
sity, a suspicion seized him, of which he has never 
been able entirely to rid himself, that the driver 
did not mistake the road, but w r as a partisan of the 
academy, and hoped to divert a student from the 
university to the academy. 

When the university increased in attendance 
the hack made daily trips, and the business was 
sometimes enlivened and the fare cheapened by 
competing hack lines. For a number of years 
Mr. George Stoner, father-in-law of Rev. John C. 
Bright, a very energetic and public-spirited citi- 
zen; ran the hack-line. He took great pride in 
making quick time. He procured a span of 
spirited and quick horses, and won the applause 
of students and others by covering the distance 
between Westerville and Columbus, twelve miles, 
in one and one-half hours, and in cases of urgency 
in even less time. Mr. Stoner was also of great 
service to Westerville in the number of substan- 
tial buildings he erected. The Stoner House, 
bearing his name, the residence now owned and 
occupied by Professor Meyer, both on State Street, 
the West-Park residence on Plum Street, and 
other houses were built by him. A characteristic 
incident during the period of hack-line com- 

291 



History of Otterbein University 

munication between Westerville and Colnmbus, is 
recalled. It was during a commencement occasion 
in the time of the War of the Kebellion. The 
Democratic Convention, which met in Columbus, 
had nominated Hon. C L. Vallandigham, of 
Dayton, Ohio, whom Lincoln had sent across the 
rebel lines on account of his treasonable speeches, 
for governor, and a hack-load of delegates were 
coming north from Columbus on their way home, 
while a hack-full of students and others was mov- 
ing south on the same road. As the hacks passed, 
a delegate shouted, "Hurrah for Vallandigham !" 
This was too much for a hack-full of intense anti- 
slavery Unionists, and Philip H. Kumler, after- 
wards for many years a judge in Cincinnati, 
sprang to his feet and shouted back, "Traitors! 
traitors!" which brought a return volley of 
epithets, and matters looked belligerent for a 
while, but the drivers kept the hacks moving at 
full speed, and a battle in the North was averted. 
When the election took place the people resented 
his nomination by electing his opponent, John 
Brough, by the then unheard-of majority of over 
100,000. At a later period a hack-line was estab- 
lished to Flint, a station on the Big Four Kail- 
road three miles west of Westerville, which greatly 
shortened the hack route ; but the road to Flint led 
through a swamp near the west end, and was at 
times almost impassable, and so the route was far 
from satisfactory. So, when there was a proposi- 
tion to build the C. A. & C. Railroad, the citizens 
of Westerville took great interest in the enter- 
prise, and contributed a bonus of about $20,000 

292 



Growth and Progress in Westcrville 

to assure the road ; and when it was completed, in 
1873, there was great rejoicing. In 1894 the 
traction line, one of the oldest intemrban lines in 
the State, was built, and now there is hourly, and 
certain portions of the day half -hourly communi- 
cation with Columbus, the capital of the State, 
giving to Westerville practically all the advantages 
of a great city, and by becoming readily accessible 
to such a railroad and traction center as Colum- 
bus, Westerville has become readily accessible to 
all parts of the State and country. 

When Otterbein University was founded, the 
Methodist Episcopal was the only church in 
Westerville. As early as 1807 and 1808 Metho- 
dist ministers preached to the Delaware and Wyan- 
dot Indians, who occupied this part of the coun- 
try, and to the few white settlers who had found 
their way to the country east and west of Alum 
Creek, near where Westerville now stands. The 
preaching, down to 1818, was done in log school- 
houses and single and double log houses in which 
the pioneers lived. There were also camp-meet- 
ings held in the woods in the summer time. In 
1817 there was a camp-meeting held on the banks 
of Alum Creek which resulted in a great revival, 
during which many of the early settlers were 
brought into the church, and in 1818, some claim 
not until 1821, a church-building, constructed out 
of hewn logs, was erected on the State road south 
of Westerville, near where the C. A. & C. railroad 
crosses the road. Here the services of the Metho- 
dists were held until 1838, the year in which Blen- 
don Young Men's Seminary was projected, which 

293 



History of Otterbein University 

fixed the location of Westerville, when the 
Methodists erected a brick church on the lot on 
State Street, which has ever since been the lot 
occupied by them. The present Methodist Church 
building was erected in 1887, and is the best 
church in the town. Among the pastors who have 
served the church may be named L. Taft, C. L. 
Van Auday, S. Tippet, H. H. Hall, W. H. Mc- 
Clintock, Pilcher Sr., and Pilcher Jr., J. Mitchell, 
A. Carroll, R. H. Wallace, L. Cunningham, J. C. 
Jackson, Sr., C. A. Naylor, W. McLaughlen, L. F. 
Postle, W. D. Gray, W. F. Jones, R, D. Morgan, 
T. H. Bradrick, A. F. Hixon, I. M. Brashares, K 
D. Cramer, J. E. Rudisill, G. A. Marshall, W. L. 
Alexander, and the present pastor, A. A. Sayre. 
For just a century now the Methodists have la- 
bored in this part of the country, and have ren- 
dered an important service in the religious de- 
velopment and culture of the people. 

The Presbyterian church of Westerville was 
erected on West College Avenue in 1864, seventeen 
years after Otterbein University was founded, and 
the United Brethren Church began its labors here. 
The Westerville Presbyterian Church was the re- 
location of the Blendon Presbyterian Church, 
which was situated on the Central College Road, 
about two miles south of Westerville, and a mile 
east of the State Road, so about three miles from 
Westerville. It was organized in 1820, and the 
first building erected in 1829. Like the Metho- 
dists, the Presbyterians, as early as 1812, preached 
in log schoolhouses and log residences. Among 
these was a log schoolhouse adjoining the Jamison 

294 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

Cemetery, south of Westerville, and the residence 
of John Cooper and Robert. McCutchin, the lat- 
ter on the State Road between the present Park 
and Winter streets. It is a curious fact that this 
Blendon Presbyterian Church connects with an 
educational institution at Central College very 
much as the Methodist Episcopal Church connects 
with the Blendon Young Men's Seminary at 
Westerville. In 1841 Mr. Timothy Lee appeared 
before a committee of the New School Synod of 
Ohio, and Presbytery of Marion, in session in 
Columbus, Ohio, to chose a location for a college, 
with a proposition to give one hundred acres of 
land and erect, at his own expense, all the build- 
ings necessary for the use of the college, provided 
the institution was located in Blendon. The propo- 
sition was accepted, and the "Central College of 
Ohio" was located upon the land given by Mr. 
Lee. It was chartered by the legislature, and in 
March, 1842, five years before the founding of 
Otterbein University, was formally organized by 
the election of Rev. L. A. Sawyer as president, 
and Rev. Ebenezer Washburn as professor of 
mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy. 
The institution ceased a number of years ago. 

Rev. J. C. Tidball became pastor of the Blen- 
don and Mifflin churches in 1860, and was re- 
leased from the Mifflin church in 1864, when the 
Blendon church moved to Westerville, where he 
continued pastor until 1869. Since Mr. Tidball 
the church has been served, first, temporarily, by 
Rev. Henry Garst, of the university, then in suc- 
cession by Rev. H. M. Robertson, Rev. A. 1ST. 

295 



History of Otterbein University 

Carson, Eev. H. L. Nave, Rev. Thos. H. Kohr, a 
graduate of the university; Rev. H. G. Birchby, 
Rev. H. C. Beeman, and Rev. L. M. Shane, who is 
the present pastor. Very cordial relations have 
always existed between the Presbyterian and 
United Brethren churches, and they have cooper- 
ated to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of 
this college community. 

The Evangelical Association built a church on 
the northwest corner of Vine and Winter streets 
in 1877. The members of this church have never 
been numerous in Westerville, but they have been 
an humble and earnest body of believers, and their 
influence and labors in the community have been 
very good. The following have been among the 
ministers who have served the Westerville church 
as pastors, sometimes serving it in connection with 
a stronger church in Columbus: E. Wengerd, A. 
Evans, W. W. Sherrick, W. P. Schott, A. 
Schwatz, W. H. Munk, A. E. Beery, L. B. Myers, 
W. L. Nauman, J. W. Heininger, J. E. D. 
Schneider. 

There is also a small frame African Methodist 
Episcopal church on Plum Street, erected in 
1881. A considerable number of colored people 
came to Westerville during and after the Civil 
War, who had been slaves until, by the terms of 
the emancipation proclamation issued by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, they were set free. Among these a 
number came from the Shenandoah Valley, in 
Virginia, where the United Brethren Church be- 
gan its labors at a very early period in its history. 
These had become well acquainted with some of 

296 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

the prominent United Brethren families in Vir- 
ginia in the days of slavery, such as the Gloss- 
brenners, the Shueys, the Burtners, the Funk- 
housers, the Hotts, and others. When freedom 
came and they came north, it was natural that 
they should seek as a place of residence an anti- 
slavery center like Westerville, among a church 
people whom they had found to he friends while 
they were yet in bondage. Quite recently a prom- 
inent colored attorney of Boston, who spent some 
of his youthful days in Westerville, and for a time 
was a student in Otterbein University, requested 
to have his name enrolled as a member of the 
United Brethren Church here, desiring to be as- 
sociated with a church which he knew in his 
boyhood, and when the end shall come, desiring to 
repose in Otterbein Cemetery, where many of his 
race lie buried, and where a number of the white 
champions of his race await the resurrection. 

Some of the colored people, however, concluded 
thai it would be pleasanter and better for them to 
have a church of their own, and worship with a 
congregation composed of their own race, and so 
this African Methodist Episcopal church was 
built, and they have labored here ever since, with 
the general good will and sympathy of the com- 
munity. The following are some of the ministers 
who have served as pastors : !N*. J. Watson, G. W. 
Maxwell, Alfred March, B. G. Langford, S. W. 
White, C. E. Newsome, G. W. Cotton, J. P. Scho- 
field, K. B. Lowe, H. E. ISTewsome, and A. T. 
White, the present pastor. 

As late as 1861 there was no public-school 

297 



History of Otterbein University 

building in Westerville. The first public-school 
building, like the first church-building, was on the 
State Road, south of the village, just south of 
what was called the Bishop residence; now the 
home of Dr. A. H. Keefer. It was a building 
with a kind of attic story above, which was used 
as a Masonic lodge room, while the children gath- 
ered in the room below for instruction. As the 
village grew this old building was abandoned, and 
a brick building of one room was erected on West 
Home Street. It is yet standing, remodeled into 
a residence by building a frame story on top of the 
brick, now the home of Mr. Peter Conklin. In 
1867 the first building was erected on the south- 
east corner of Vine and Home streets. When this 
was outgrown, a frame addition was extended 
from the rear. In 1896 this building was torn 
down, and the present excellent building was 
erected, at a cost of about $20,000. It was dedi- 
cated with great ceremony, Governor Asa Bush- 
nell gracing the occasion with his presence, and 
delivering an address. The school is thoroughly 
organized and well graded, and the high school is 
of recognized standard. The superintendents, 
from the 60's down, have been A. J. Willoughby, 
1865-74; William Y. Bartels, 1874-78; John 
Clark, 1878-82; D. C. Arnold, 1882-85; T. M. 
Fonts, 1885-92; E. D. Rosier, 1892-96; J. 
Walton, 1896-98; J. W. Jones, 1898-00; L. A. 
Bennert, 1900-03 ; and the present encumbent, J. 

P. West, 1903 . 

Among the lady graduates of the university 
who have served as teachers in the school mav be 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

named Lillie Besler, Flora Spangler, Lizzie 
Hanby, O. A. Bacon, Cora Frazier, May Andrus, 
May Irwin, Lockey Stewart, Anna Baker, Ger- 
trude Scott, Otis Flook, and Catherine Barnes. 
Four of the ten superintendents were also grad- 
uates, and all except three were students of the 
university. After this it is hardly necessary to 
state that the relations between the public school 
and the university have always been cordial. 

The first village paper, as distinguished from 
a college journal, was conducted by Mr. J. K. 
Farver in 1868. It was called the Reveille. After 
a short career it was succeeded by what was called 
the Westerville Banner, which was first published 
by Mr. E. J. Yoakum, then by A. O. Elliott, who 
was followed by Mr. Milton Scott. The latter has 
gained prominence by his earnest pleas for the 
humane treatment of prisoners while confined in 
our jails and penitentiaries. These local papers 
gathered the news of the town and surrounding 
country, and sought to promote the welfare of the 
village, giving special attention to the interests of 
Otterbein University. The Banner was succeeded 
in 1879 by the Westerville Review, edited and 
published first by Mr. C. F. Palmer, followed by 
Hal Landon, now editor of the Ohio Sun, Colum- 
bus, Ohio, then by Mr. Arthur Alexander, and 
finally by Mr. Frank Gardner, a graduate of the 
university. In 1886 the Westerville Review was 
succeeded by the Public Opinion, a name which 
the paper ever since has borne. The Public Opin- 
ion was first edited and published by Capt. A. K. 
Keller. The captain was very enterprising, and 

299 



History of Otterbein University 

conducted the paper in a very capable manner. He 
was succeeded by Sprague and Robinson, and they 
in turn by J. E. Guitner, the professor of Greek 
in Otterbein University, and the readers of Public 
Opinion had the benefit, during the year 1889-90, 
of the scholarship and literary taste of the pro- 
fessor. He sold the journal to Mr. C. A. Leach, 
who was succeeded by Scott & Keller, with whom 
Mr. J. H. Larimore was connected for a number 
of years; then, under the corporate name of the 
Buckeye Printing Company, Mr. Clarence Met- 
ters in 1906 purchased a majority of the stock and 
became president of the company and editor of 
Public Opinion j who is conducting the paper with 
an energy and enterprise never surpassed. The 
paper gives in greater detail than any Columbus 
paper, the local news of Westerville, and the sur- 
rounding towns of Worthington, Galena, Sunbury, 
and other points, and with greater frequency than 
is possible in the monthly journal of the Philo- 
phronean Publishing Company or the quarterly 
Bulletin issued by the university, sets forth the 
events and transactions of the college. 

After considerable effort the author has suc- 
ceeded in fixing with reasonable certainty the date 
of the first hotel ever built in Westerville. It was 
built by Mr. Jotham Clark in 1842. It stood on 
State Street, now the fourth house north of 
Park, west side, counting Dr. D. W. Coble's office. 
After having stood in a dilapidated condition for 
many years, and the rear, or dining-hall extension 
having been torn down, the front portion was re- 
cently remodeled into a residence by Mr. Charles 

300 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

Ackerson, who occupies it. The building ante- 
dates Otterbein University by five years, and in 
the early years of the university afforded accom- 
modations for gentlemen students, Rev. William 
Slaughter occupied it in 1851, and the boys 
dubbed it the "Slaughter house." Professor John 
Haywood stayed at this hotel when he began his 
work as professor of mathematics. The author, 
as a student, in 1853, lodged and boarded in this 
hotel when it was conducted by Mr. Bunyan 
Waters, whose widow and daughters are still resi- 
dents of Westerville. He also had his home in 
this hotel in 1854, when it was kept by Mr. Isaac 
Clark, who later sold it and built the large brick 
house which stands almost directly east, known 
as the Doctor Hunt house. It was built in the 
front middle portion of an apple orchard which 
then occupied the ground. The southwest corner 
of State and Main streets is also an old hotel cor- 
ner. One of the early landlords was a Mr. Rugg, 
and another was John Beal, father of Wm. Beal, 
who resides on the Avenue. The old log building, 
which was weather-boarded, was torn down in 
1890, and the present Hotel Blendon was built 
by Mr. Thomas Holmes in 1891. It is far the 
best hotel building Westerville has ever had and 
is a credit to the town. The Redding Block, on 
State, north of Main Street, where the restaurant 
and Central Hotel are now conducted, is also 
one of the early hotels of Westerville. The Cly- 
mer House, which was wrecked and destroyed in 
the Westerville Whisky War of 1879, when H. 
Corbin kept the house and attempted to run a 

301 



History of Otterbein University 

saloon in the basement, of which an account is 
given in a previous chapter, stood on State Street 
just north of the Westerville Bank building. The 
Stoner House on south State Street was built for 
hotel purposes, but was long ago remodeled for 
residence purposes. 

The health of Westerville has always been good. 
In the early years before adequate drainage was 
provided, and before there was a board of health 
to look after sanitary conditions, at certain seasons 
fevers prevailed to some extent; but for many 
years the health record of Westerville has been re- 
markably good, and since a system of sanitary 
sewers has been put in and a water-works plant 
supplying excellent water has been installed, the 
health conditions have been unsurpassed. Among 
the physicians who have practised their profession 
and looked after the health of the people here may 
be named G. W. Landon, A. G. Stevenson, S. H. 
Newcomb, Thos. McFadden, Abner Andrus, D. 
W. Coble, Z. F. Guerin, P. F. Eberly, A. O. Blair, 
Giles T. Blair, A. W. Jones, C. B. Dickson, J. P. 
Hunt, Chauncey Landon, H. Ferguson, G. H. 
Mayhugh, I. ~N. Smith, and Frand Andrus. 

The first cemetery, like the first church and the 
first school-building, was on the State Boad south 
of Westerville, and is called the Jamison grave- 
yard. After this there was a graveyard estab- 
lished west of State Street, in the northwest part 
of town. There was also a small graveyard in what 
is now the heart of the town, on State Street, about 
where the Westerville Bank building now stands. 
Otterbein Cemetery, at the south end of Grove 

302 



Growth and Progress in Westerville 

Street, was established by an association in the 
fifties and has long been the principle place of 
burial. 

Among the postmasters were Chas. T. Brush, 
W. W. Whitehead, Henry Dyxon, John Han- 
thorn, Thos. Jones, Jas. Westervelt, J. B. Con- 
nelly, M. H. Mann, J. Heroun, O. K. Bacon, 
David Johnson, G. W. Haynie, J. L. Flickinger, 
Mrs. M. M. Coggeshall, W. Kowe, S. E. Fonts, 
F. M. Kanck, S. Chapman, and G. L. Stoughton, 
who has just entered upon his second term of 
service. 

The business of Westerville has been mainly 
such as the needs of a college town demanded, 
with little attention to manufacturing industries. 
There have been flouring mills from an early date. 
The Everal Tile Factory, west of town, dates back 
to 1876, and, besides tile, manufactures building 
block and a superior quality of brick. The Chris- 
tian Association building and the upper stories of 
Cochran Hall are built of Everal brick. The Ben- 
nett & Company Stump Puller Manufactory be- 
gan in 1884, and ships stump pullers to many 
countries. The company also manufactures tile 
ditchers and corn harvesters. The Culver Art 
and Frame Company has a factory on east Col- 
lege Avenue. The M. C. Lilly Regalia Company 
of Columbus maintains a shop in the Weyant 
Block which gives employment to a number of 
ladies. The Never-Rot Post Company, besides 
cement posts, manufactures cement building 
blocks, porch posts, etc. Recently a Novelty 
Company has been organized, and the Taylor 

303 



History of Otterbein University 

Foundry and Machine Company is now erecting 
buildings and will manufacture castings for the 
Ralston Steel Car Company of Columbus. The 
real estate and building business is also very 
active, and a larger number of substantial and 
beautiful residences are building than ever be- 
fore. 

During the entire past sixty years, the one all- 
important and dominating interest of Westerville 
has been Otterbein University, and this interest 
has largely directed and shaped the growth and 
progress of the place. When it was incorporated 
in 1858, John Haywood, a professor in the uni- 
versity, was elected as the first mayor, and the 
very first ordinance adopted was designed to as- 
sure the moral safety and welfare of the citizens, 
and now on this sixtieth anniversary year of the 
university, Mr. Charles Snavely, another pro- 
fessor, holds the chief place of honor and respon- 
sibility in the municipal government. It is the 
university mainly that has kept Westerville well 
to the front in the march of material improvement 
represented in modern conveniences. It was a 
determining factor in securing a Bell telephone 
line and toll station in 1889 ; a Citizen's telephone 
line and exchange in 1901, and Bell exchange in 
1906, an interurban traction line in 1894, one of 
the earliest in the State ; an electric-light plant in 
1898; a natural gas line in 1903, and water- 
works, sanitary sewers, and paved streets in 
1904-05. But of far more consequence is it to 
say that Otterbein University has been a control- 
ling factor in keeping Westerville well to the 

304 



Growth and Progress in Westervillc 

front in intelligence, morals, and religion by the 
character of the citizens it has helped to attract 
and by the molding and culturing influence it has 
exerted in building up an ideal college community, 
a safe and desirable home for the many hundreds 
of youth who throng its halls from year to year 
as students, and so> a safe and desirable home for 
anybody else. 

The location of the university in a small place, 
away from the distractions and temptations of the 
great city, coimmends it to* those who keenly feel 
the importance of guarding our youth with the ut- 
most care during the susceptible and formative 
period spent in college, that, as a basis for an ex- 
tensive and worthy service, they may build pure 
and strong characters. At the same time its loca- 
tion near the most important city in the State, the 
capital, with its numerous State institutions and 
its teeming and rapidly-growing population, com- 
mends it to those who feel that our great cities 
present altogether the most important and difficult 
problems, which, in the coming years, it will fall 
to the lot of those trained in our colleges to help 
solve. It would be difficult to find a more happy 
combination of the educational advantages of a 
small and large place than Otterbein University 
enjoys. 



305 



History of Otterbein University 



APPENDIX A. 



OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY. 

1847-1907. 



Presidents. 
William R. Griffith (Principal), 1847-49; Rev. William Davis, 
1849-50 ; Rev. Lewis Davis, 1850-57 ; Rev. Alexander Owen, 
1858-60 ; Rev. Lewis Davis, 1860-71 ; Rev. Daniel Eberly, 1871- 
72 ; Rev. Henry Adams Thompson, 1872-86 ; Rev. Henry Garst, 
1886-89 ; C. A. Bowersox, 1889-91 ; Rev. T. J. Sanders, 1891-01 ; 
George Scott, 1901-04 ; Rev. Lewis Bookwalter, 1904 — . 

Professors Emeritus. 

Rev. Lewis Davis, 1886-90 ; John Haywood, 1893-06 ; Henry 
Garst, 1900—. 

Professors. 

Sylvester S. Dillman, Mathematics and Natural Science, 
1849-50 ; William R. Griffith, Ancient Languages, 1849-52 ; 
Alexander Bartlett, Ancient Languages, 1850-52 : John Hay- 
wood, Mathematics and Natural Science, 1851-58 ; James A. 
Martling, Ancient Languages, 1852-53 ; Ralph Manning Walker, 
Ancient Languages, 1853-58 ; Lucian H. Hammond, Rhetoric 
and Belles-Lettres, 1857-5S : Rev. Sereno W. Streeter, Intel- 
lectual Philosophy, 1857-58 ; Lucian H. Hammond, Greek, 
1858-62 ; Ralph M. Walker, Latin, 1858-62 ; Rev. Sereno W. 
Streeter, Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres, 1858-60 ; John Havwood, 
Mathematics, 1858-62, 1867-93 ; Thomas McFadden, Natural 
Science, 1858-62, 1866-84 ; Rev. Julius Degmeier, Modern Lan- 
guages, 1859-62 ; Rev. Samuel B. Allen, Ancient Languages, 
1862-65 ; Rev. Henry A. Thompson, Mathematics and Natural 
ScieDce, 1862-66 ; Rev. Samuel B. Allen, Greek, 1865-67 : John 
E. Guitner, Latin, 1865-67 ; Rev. Henry A. Thompson, Mathe- 
matics, 1866-67 ; John E. Guitner, Ancient Languages, 1867-69 ; 
John E. Guitner, Greek, 1869-00 ; Rev. Henry Garst, Latin, 
1869-86 ; William L. Todd, Music, 1878-87 ; Louis H. McFad- 
den, Natural Science, 1884-98: Rev. William J. Zuck, History 
and English, 1884-85 ; Rev. William J. Zuck, English Language 
and Literature, 1885-90, 1891-03 ; Rev. Henry A. Thompson, 
Logic and Rhetoric, 1886-87 ; Miss Josephine Johnson, Modern 
Languages, 1886-90. 1894-04 ; George Scott, Latin, 1887 — ; 
Charles E. Davis, Music, 1888-89 ; Rev. Henry Garst, Mental 
and Moral Science and English Bible, 1889-00 : Frederick 
Neddermeyer, Music, 1889-91 ; Miss Florence Cronise, Modern 
Languages, 1890-94 ; Robert A. Morrow, Music, 1891-92 ; W. B. 
Kinnear, Music, 1892-94 ; Frank E. Miller, Mathematics, 
1893 — : Herman Ebeling, Music, 1894-95 ; Gustav Meyer, 
Music, 1895 — ; Louis H. McFadden. Physics and Chemistry, 
1898 — ; Thomas Gilbert McFadden, Natural Science, 1898-00; 
William C. Whitney, Biology and Geology. 1900-04 ; Cbarles 
Snavely, History and Economics, 1900 — : Gustav Meyer. Com- 
parative Philology, 1901 — : Rev. Thomas J. Sanders, Philos- 
ophy, 1901 — ; Rev. Noah E. Cornetet, Greek, 1901 — ; Sarah 

306 



Appendix A 

M. Sherrick, English Language and Literature, 1903 — : Alma 
Guitner, German Language and Literature, 1904 — ; Edwin B. 
Evans, Rhetoric and Public Speaking, 190(3 — . 

Adjunct Professors. 

John E. Guitner, Languages, 1864-65 ; Louis H. McFadden, 
Natural Science, 1882-84 ; Frank E. Miller, Mathematics, 
1890-93. 

Insti'uctors. 

Jacob Zeller, Languages, 1857-57 ; John E. Guitner, Lan- 
guages, 1862-64 ; Mrs. Miriam M. Cole, English Literature, 
1873-74 ; Michael A. Mess, German, 1873-75 ; M. De Witt Long, 
Elocution, 1874-76 ; John X. Zuber, German, 1876-78 ; Miss 
Cora A. McFadden, English, 1883-84 ; William S. Reese, 
Mathematics, 1883-84 ; John E. Lehman, Mathematics and 
Latin. 1886-87 ; Robert K. Porter, Elocution, 1886-87 ; Willing- 
ton O. Mills, Mathematics, 1887-88 ; David F. Fawcett, His- 
tory, 1887-88 ; C. C. Waters, History, 1889-90 ; Rudolph H. 
W T agoner, Mathematics and Latin, 1889-90, 1893 — ; Miss Lela 
Guitner, English, 1892-93 ; Edwin D. Williams, Elocution, 
1893-94 ; Frank S. Fox, Elocution, 1895-99 ; M. R. Woodland, 
English. 1899-00 ; W. T. Trump, Civil Government, 1899-00 ; 
Luda B. McNamee, Elocution, 1899-01 ; Miss Alma Guitner, 
German, 1900-04 ; Miss Emma Guitner, Greek, 1900-01 : Miss 
Lavina I'. Shallenberger, Elocution, 1901-02 ; Edgar W. Mc- 
Mullen, Mathematics, 1901-02 ; Joseph O. Ervin, Mathematics, 
1901-02 ; Mrs. Chestora M. Carr, Elocution, 1902 — ; Miss 
Sarah M. Sherrick, English and French, 1902-03 ; Miss Bertha 
S. Flick, French, 1903 — ; Edwin Poe Durrant, Biology and 
Geology, 1904 — ; Lewis E. Myers, English, 1904-06 ; Lydia 
Oehlschlegel, Mathematics, 1905-6. 

Principals of Preparatory Department. 
(The Academy since 1900.) 
Edwin L. Shuey, 1881-85 ; John E. Lehman, 1885-86 ; Rev. 
William J. Zuck, 1886-87 ; Rev. W. J. Johnson, 1888-90 ; Frank 

E. Miller, 1890-93; Rudolph H. Wagoner, 1893—. 

Principals of Ladies' Department. 
Miss C. Murray, 1S47-48 ; Miss Sylvia Carpenter, 1848-49, 
1851-52 ; Miss Lucy Carpenter, 1849-50 ; Mrs. Sylvia Haywood, 
1852-54, 1855-56 ; Miss Martha A. Perrin, 1854-55 : Miss Mary 
L. Gilbert, 1856-62 ; Mrs. Lizzie K. Miller, 1862-63, 1864-69, 
1870-75 ; Miss Melissa A. Haynie, 1863-64 ; Miss Clara L. Leib, 
1869-70 ; Mrs. Melissa H. Fisher, 1875-81 ; Miss Josephine 
Johnson, 1881-85 ; Mrs. J. E. Lehman, 1885-86 ; Mrs. Kate 
Hanby. 1886-87 ; Miss Emma M. Linton, 1887-89 ; Miss Emma 

F. Burtner, 1889-90 ; Miss Tirza L. Barnes, 1890-98. 

Teachers of Music. 
Mrs. Matilda Gilruth Carpenter, Piano, 1852-53 : Miss Cor- 
nelia A. Walker, Instrumental, 1853-56, 1859-61 ; John Syler, 
Vocal and Instrumental, 1856-58 ; Miss Lizzie A. Pryor, In- 
strumental, 1862-63 ; Miss Lydia M. Winter, Instrumental, 
1863-69 ; John M. Bigger, Instrumental, 1870-72 ; Rev. A. 
Peckham, Vocal, 1871-72 : Rev. C. A. Bowersox. Vocal, 1872-74 ; 
Benjamin Naumborg, Instrumental. 1873-74 ; Miss Ella H. Mor- 
rison, Instrumental, 1874-75 ; Daniel S. Wymer, Vocal, 1874-75 ; 
Miss Minnie S. King, Instrumental, 1875-78 ; E. S. Lorenz, 
Vocal. 1876-80 ; Miss Laura E. Resler, Vocal, 1881-82 ; O. E. 
McFadon, Vocal, 1882-83 ; Mrs. A. Ewing, Vocal, 1883-83 ; Miss 
Lydia K. Resler, Vocal. 1S84-87 ; Mrs. W. L. Todd, Instru- 
mental, 1887-88 ; Miss Nellie Flickinger, Instrumental, 1887-88 ; 

307 



History of Otterbein University 

Miss E. Prockie Coggeshall, Vocal, 1887-88 ; Jacob Goehl, In- 
strumental, 1887-88 ; Carl Schoppelrei, Instrumental, 1888-89 ; 
Mrs. W. Y. Miles, Voice, 1889-90; Miss Elsie A. Merriman, 
Voice, 1890-91 ; Mrs. W. L. Todd, Piano, 1890-91 ; John F. 
Ransom, Voice, 1891-92 ; Miss Emma Ebeling, Piano, 1894-95 ; 
Miss Susan K. Rike, Voice, 1894-95 ; Miss Zora E. Wheeler, 
Voice, 1895-96 ; M. Luther Peterson, Voice, 1896-97 ; Miss 
Lillian Miller, Voice, 1897-98 ; Miss Martha A. Roloson, Piano, 
1897-98 ; Robert Eckhardt, Violin, 1897-98 ; Miss Nannie S. 
Andrews, Voice, 1898-00; John S. Bayer, Violin, 1898-99, 
1901-02 ; Miss Ludema A. Van Anda, Mandolin and Guitar, 
1898 — ; John D. Miller, Violin, 1899-00; Clarence R. New- 
man. Voice, 1900-03 ; Edgar S. Weinland, Clarinet, 1900-02 ; 
Miss Jessie E. Banks, Violin, 1900-01 ; Carl Helmstetter, Leader 
of Band, 1900-03 ; Miss Daisy Maude Watkins, Piano, 1902-04 ; 
Herbert G. Eagleson, Violin, 1902-04 ; Lula May Baker, Piano, 
1903 — ; Mrs. Alice Turner, Voice, 1903-04 ; John A. Bend- 
inger, Voice, 1903 — ; Chester Scott, Leader of Band, 1903-04; 
Frederic Dubois. Violin, 1904 — ; Maude Hanawalt, Piano, 
1905-6; Glenn G. Grabill, 1905—. 



Teachers of Painting and Drawing. 

Mrs. H. E. Thompson, 1862-68, 1872-93 ; Mrs. Isabel Sevier 
Scott, 1893 — ; Miss Bertha A. Monroe, Pyrography, 1899-01, 
1903 — ; Miss Grace Wallace, China Painting, 1901-02 ; Miss 
May Belle Collins, Pyrography, 1902-03 ; Daisy Clifton, Art, 
1905 — . 



Librarians. 

Henry Garst, 1872-75, 1876-78; Thomas McFadden, 1875-76, 
1878-83 ; L. H. McFadden, 1883-84 ; W. J. Zuck, 1884-86, 
1900-02 ; J. E. Lehman, 1886-87 ; J. E. Guitner, 1887-95 ; 
George Scott, 1895-00 ; Miss Tirza L. Barnes, 1898 — ; Wil- 
liam C. Whitney, 1902-04. 



Teachers of Penmanship. 

Charles M. Baldwin, 1874-78; P. F. Wilkinson, 1879-81, 
1882-84; W. C. Reese, 1881-82; William P. Walter, 1888-89; 
Edgar G. Brandt. 1892-93; John F. Nave, 1893-94, 1899-00; 
Charles W. O'Brien, 1896-97. 



Teachers of Bookkeeping, Stenography, and Typewriting. 

L. J. Lunn, 1889-90 : Miss Teresa Maxwell, 1890-92 ; Miss 
Alice K. Bender, 1892-95 ; William Slemmer, 1899-00 ; Burton 
E. Parker, 1900-03 : Mrs. Isora Parker, 1900-03 ; Theodore 
Davis, 1901-02 ; Charles R. Frankham, Commercial Law, 
1902-03 ; P. F. Wilkinson, 1904 — . 



Directors of Physical Culture. 

Miss E. Luella Fouts, 1894-96, 1897-98, 1899-00; Hanby R, 
Jones, 1897-98; David J. Good, 1898-00; Miss Tallmadge A. 
Rickey, 1900-04 ; Chester C. Vale, 1900-01 ; Joseph O. Ervin, 
1900-03 ; Hersey R. Keene, 1903 — ; Nellis R, Funk, 1903-04 ; 
Miss Olivia Milne, 1904-06 ; Frank Eyman, 1905-6 ; J. E. Kalm- 
bach, 1906 — . 

308 



Appendix A 

FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS, 1906-07. 

Lewis Bookwalter, A.M., D.D., LL.D., President 

Westerville Chair 

*John Haywood, LL.D Professor Emeritus 

Henry Garst, D.D Professor Emeritus 

Louis H. McFadden, A.M 

Merchant Professor of Physics and Chemistry 

George Scott, Litt.D., Ph.D., LL.D., Vice-President 

..Flickinger Professor of Latin Language and Literature 

Frank E. Miller, Ph.D Dresbach Professor of Mathematics 

Rev. Thomas J. Sanders, Ph.D..Hulitt Professor of Philosophy 
Rudolph H. Wagoner, A.M Instructor of 

Latin and Mathematics. Principal of the Academy 
Gustav Meyer, Ph.D Professor 

of Comparative Philology. Director of the Conservatory 

Charles Snavely, Ph.D Professor of History and Economics 

Isabel Sevier Scott Principal of the Art Department 

Tirza L. Barnes, B.S Librarian 

Alma Guitner, A.M 

. . . Hively Professor of German Language and Literature 
Rev. Noah E. Cornetet, A.M Professor 

of Greek Language and Literature. College Registrar 

Sarah M. Sherrick, Ph.D Professor of English Literature 

Lula May Baker, A.B Instructor in Piano 

Frederick Dubois . . Instructor in Violin and Leader of Orchestra 
Edwin Poe Durant, A.M Professor 

of Biology and Geology. Registrar of the Academy 
Alzo Pierre Rosselot. A.B Instructor in Romance 

Languages and Literature. Secretary of the Faculty 

Glenn Grant Grabill Assistant in Piano 

Alfred R. Barrington Instructor in Voice 

Daisy' Clifton Assistant in Art 

Lydia Oehlschlegel, A.B Tutor in Mathematics 

Edwin Barlow Evans, A.B 

Professor of Rhetoric and Public Speaking 

J. E. Kalmbach, B.S Physical Culture and Athletics 

Anna V. Zeller Matron of Cochran Hall 

Rev. Samuel F. Daugherty, A.B., B.D College Pastor 



•Died December 12, 1906. 

309 



History of Otterbein University 



APPENDIX B. 



FINANCIAL OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND OTHER EMPLOYEES 

OF OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY, 

1847-1907. 

Executive Committee. 
(Styled Prudential Committee after 1859.) 
Rev. Lewis Davis, 1851-52, 1854-70; Rev. William Hanby, 
1854-70 ; Rev. John Lawrence, 1851-52 ; Rev. William Slaughter, 
1854-56, 1858-59; Rev. J. C. Bright, 1854-61; Rev. D. K. 
Flickinger, 1854-55 ; Rev. A. Miller, 1854-57 ; Rev. A. Winter, 
1855-57 ; Rev. Peter Tabler, 1855-57 : Thomas McFadden, 
1855-62 ; John Wagner, 1855-56, 1869-70 ; John Haywood, 
1856-59, 1868-69 ; Rev. Peter Flack, 1856-58 ; Ralph M. Walker, 
1856-57 ; S. W. Dempsey, 1856-57 ; I. A. Coons, 1857-58 ; Daniel 
Guitner, 1857-59, 1861-67; John Knox, 1857-58, 1867-70, 
1873-79, 1892-96 ; Rev. William Fisher, 1857-58 ; Rev. Jonathan 
Weaver, 1857-58, 1861-68 ; H. McCune, 1858-59 ; Samuel Hively, 
1859-61 ; Rev. John Walter, 1862-63 ; Rev. S. Lindsey, 1863-66 ; 
J. F. Snoddy, 1863-64, 1879-86 ; Rev. Samuel B. Allen, 1863-65, 
1866-67; Rev. J. B. Resler, 1866-70, 1874-75, 1878-79, 1886-87; 
Rev. M. Bulger, 1870-72: John Helpman, 1870-73, 1874-75, 
1878-83 ; Ervin Moore, 1870-73 ; Isaac Speer, 1872-74 ; Rev. A. 
McDannel, 1873-74 ; Rev. J. M. Spangler, 1875-77 ; Rev. Wm. 
McKee, 1875-78 ; Rev. W. J. Shuey, 1879-84, 1898-00 ; Rev. 
Henry Garst, 1879-89, 1891-98, 1900-05; D. Shisler, 1879-80 ; Rev. 
D. R. Miller, 1880-82, 1883-85, 1900-02 ; J. A. Weinland, 1882-90, 
1893-00; D. L. Rike, 1884-95; A. B. Kohr, 1885-87; Dr. A. W. 
Jones, 1887-89; J. W. Markley, 1887-92; Rev. C. A. Bowersox, 
1889-91 ; Rev. C. W. Miller, 1890-92 ; Rev. T. J. Sanders, 1891- 
01; Rev. S. M. Hippard, 1892-93; Rev. W. J. Zuck, 1895-00; 
W. O. Baker, 1896-98, 1900-01, 1903 — ; E. L. Weinland, 
1898 — ; F. E. Miller, 1898-00; John Gerlaugh, 1898-00; L. H. 
McFadden, 1901-02 ; George W. Bright, 1901-03 ; George Scott, 
1902-04 ; L. D. Bonebrake, 1902-03 ; Frederick Riebel, 1903-05 ; 
Lewis Bookwalter, 1904 — ; Rev. W. R. Funk, 1905 — ; F. H. 
Rike, 1905—. 

Board of Directors of Endowment Fund — 1858-1859. 
Peter Tabler, 1858-59 ; James Langham, 1858-59 ; Peter 
Flack, 1858-59; J. Souder, 1858-59; John Dorcas, 1858-59. 

General Financial Agents — 1859-1879. 
Rev. Levi Moore, 1859-61 ; Rev. Jonathan Weaver, 1861-62, 
1863-65 ; Rev. Solomon Lindsey, 1865-66 ; Rev. J. M. Spangler, 
1866-70 ; Rev. J. B. Resler, 1870-73 ; Rev. D. Bender, 1873-79. 

General Financial Agents and Treasurers — 1879-189%. 
Rev. S. M. Hippard, 1879-92 ; Rev. C. W. Miller, 1892-94. 

Soliciting Agents — 18^6-1902. 
Rev. Lewis Davis, 1846-59 ; Rev. John Lawrence, 1848-49 ; 
Rev. William Slaughter, 1851-59 ; Rev. Peter Tabler, 1854-57 ; 

310 



Appendix B 

Rev. Solomon Weaver, 1854-55 ; II. Haiu, 1854-55 ; Rev. A. 
Winter, 1855-56 ; Rev. William Hanby, 1856-57 ; Rev. Henry 
Kumler. 1856-57 ; Rev. J. B. Resler, 1856-57, 1869-70, 1883-85 ; 
Rev. Jonathan Weaver, 1857-59, 1862-63 ; Rev. W. G. Wells, 
1856-57 ; Rev. Peter Flack, 1856-59 ; I. A. Coons, 1857-58 ; Rev. 
B. R. Hanby, 1857-59 : Rev. John Walter, 1862-63 ; Rev. M. 
Bulger. 1868-69 ; Rev. Levi Moore, 1868-70 ; Rev. W. D. Trover, 
1868-69 : Rev. J. M. Spangler, 1870-71 ; Rev. D. Bender, 1871- 
73; Rev. D. R. Miller, 1871-78; Rev. C. W. Miller, 1873-78, 
1882-84 ; Rev. J. A. Crayton, 1878-79 ; J. L. Morrison, 1883-87 ; 
Rev. E. Barnard, 1885-86 : Rev. S. H. Raudebaugh, 1887-88 ; 
Rev. Columbus Hall, 1S88-89 ; Rev. C. Whitney, 1889-94 ; Rev. 
W. B. Leggett, 1890-91 ; Rev. S. B. Ervin, 1891-92 ; Rev. F. P. 
Sanders, 1899-00 ; Rev. L. Keister, 1900-01. 

Field Agents. 
Rev. W. W. Rymer, 1902-04 ; Rev. G. P. Macklin, 1906-07. 

Treasurers. 
Thomas McFadden, 1858-62 ; Daniel Guitner, 1862-66, 1870- 
71 ; George W. Haynie, 1866-69 ; J. E. Guitner, 1869-70 ; W. O. 
Guitner, 1871-72 : H. A. Guitner, 1872-74 ; Henry Garst, 1874- 
79 : W. J. Zuck, 1894-00 ; Henry Garst, 1900-05 ; W. O. Baker, 
1905 — . 

General Financial Secretaries. 
Henry A. Guitner, 1870-71 ; Isaac Speer, 1871-72 ; J. E. 
Guitner, 1874-77 ; John Haywood, 1877-79 ; W. J. Zuck, 1892- 
00 ; Henry Garst, 1900-05 ; W. O. Baker, 1905 — . 

Secretaries of Prudential Committee. 
John Haywood, 1879-82 ; J. E. Guitner, 1882-84 ; W. J. 
Zuck, 1884-86, 1891-00; L. H. McFadden, 1886-91; Henry 
Garst, 1900-05 ; W. O. Baker, 1905-. 

Executive Committee of the Finance Committee — 189^-1898. 
George W. Hartzell, 1894-95 ; D. L. Rike, 1894-95 ; S. E. 
Kumler, 1894-98; W. J. Shuey, 1894-98; F. II. Rike, 1894-98; 
John Gerlaugh, 1895-98; A. B. Shauck, 1896-98. 

Conservatory Board of Control — 1895-1902 
Edgar L. Weinland, 1895-02 ; John A. Shauck, 1895-02 ; Ed- 
win D. Resler, 1895-00 ; Frank O. Clements, 1898-02. 

Stewards — 1856-1898. 
(After 1881, Matrons of Ladies' Hall.) 

Samuel Hively, 1856-57 ; C. A. Redding, 1558-61 ; Isaac Win- 
ter, 1861-66 ; Rev. S. Lee, 1867-69 ; Rev. J. K. Billheimer, 
1869-70 ; Isaac Speer, 1871-77 ; Mrs. Caroline Merchant, 1877- 
80 ; Mrs. N. W. Peet, 1880-81 ; Mrs. E. S. Downey, 1881-83 ; 
Miss C. A. Antrim, 1883-98 ; Cochran Hall, Anna V. Zeller, 
1907 — . 

Janitors. 

William Jones. 1872-76; Uriah W. Reed. 1876-79: John R. 
Williams, 1879-81 ; Francis M. Ranck, 1881-88 ; Charles A. 
Dehnhoff, 1888-92 : Lylle B. McMillen, 1892-02 ; W. G. Mathews, 
1895-02 ; James Earl Mattoon, 1902 — ; Eugene C. Worman, 
1902-03 ; Hiram M. Worstell, 1902-03 ; Oris Suver, 1902-03 ; 
Philip Luh, 1902 — ; Alzo P. Rosselot, 1903-04 ; Lewis W. 
Warson, 1903-05 ; Lafe P. Cooper, 1904 — ; Philip Luh, 
1905 — ; Jas. O. Cox, 1905 — ; G. W. Duckwall, 1906 — . 

311 



History of Otterbein University 

CORPORATION— BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

President. 
F. H. Rike, A.B., Dayton. 

Secretary. 
H. Garst, D.D., Westerville. 

Allegheny Conference. 

Term Expires. 
Lawrence Keister, D.D., Mt. Pleasant, Pa September, 1908 

C. E. Mullin, Mt. Pleasant, Pa September, 1909 

John Thomas, Sr., Johnstown, Pa September, 1910 

East Ohio Conference. 

Rev. J. H. Miller, Alliance September, 1908 

A. A. Moore, Barberton September, 1910 

Rev. W. S. White, A.B., Conneaut September, 1912 

Erie Conference. 

Rev. A. Meeker, Grand Valley, Pa September, 1907 

Rev. Geo. McCullouch, Bradford, Pa September, 1909 

Rev. I. Bennehoff, Fredonia, N. Y September, 1911 

Miami Conference. 

Rev. P. M. Camp, A.M., Dayton August, 1907 

E. Jay Rogers, Dayton August, 1909 

Robert E. Kline, A.B., Dayton August, 1911 

Michigan Conference. 

I. J. Bear. West Carlisle, Mich September, 1907 

Rev. W. D. Stratton, Ph.D., Petoskey, Mich ... September, 1909 

Rev. C. E. Pilgrim, Grand Rapids, Mich September, 1911 

West Virginia Conference. 

Rev. A. H. Reese, Huntington, W. Va September, 1907 

Rev. F. G. Radabaugh, Wilbur, W. Va September, 1909 

Prof. W. O. Mills, A.M., Buckhannon, W. Va. .September, 1911 

Sandusky Conference. 

D. R. Miller, D.D., Dayton September, 1907 

H. T. Shull, Vanlue September, 1909 

W. O. Fries, A.M., D.D., Dayton September, 1911 

Southeast Ohio Conference. 

E. S. Neuding, Circleville September, 1907 

John Hulitt, Hillsboro September, 1909 

Rev. George Geiger, Westerville September, 1911 

St. Joseph Conference. 

Rev. J. W. Eby, Walkeron, Ind September, 1907 

Rev. S. P. Klotz, Waterloo. Ind September, 1909 

Rev. J. W. Lake, Bremen, Ind September, 1911 

Trustees at Large. 

G. A. Lambert, Anderson, Ind June, 1907 

Fred H. Rike, A.B.. Dayton June, 1909 

J. W. Ruth, Scottdale, Pa June, 1909 

Jos. J. Knox, Westerville June, 1909 

G. W. Kretzinger, LL.D., Chicago, 111 June, 1909 

John Thomas, Jr., A.B., Johnstown, Pa June, 1909 

312 



Appendix B 

W. R. Funk, D.D., Dayton June, 1910 

George W. Bright, Columbus June, 1910 

S. S. Hough, D.D., Dayton June, 1910 

Alumnal Association. 

Prof. A. B. Shauck, B.S., Dayton 1907 

F. O. Clements, A.M., Dayton 1907 

John Detweiler, M.D., Uniontown, Pa 1907 

Charles M. Rogers, A.M., Columbus 1908 

Henry Garst, D.D., Westerville 1908 

H. F. Detweiler, A.M., Uniontown, Pa 1908 

George M. Mathews, D.D., Chicago, 111 1909 

Hon. Lewis D. Bonebrake, LL.D., Columbus 1909 

Edgar L. Weinland, Ph.B., Columbus 1909 

PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE. 

1906-07. 
Lewis Bookwalter, D.D., Chairman: 

E. L. Weinland, Ph.B., LL.B., Secretary. 
W. R. Funk, D.D. F. H. Rike, A.B. 

Secretary and Treasurer, 
W. O. Baker. 

Janitors. 
James E. Mattoon. L. P. Cooper. 

Philip Luh. 
Geo. W. Duckwall. Jame.« O. Cox. 

KNOX-PLAN PLEDGES. 

Taken between the adjournment of the Board of Trustees of 

Otterbein University, June 14, 1893, and its 

Adjournment June 14, 1894. 

ALLEGHENY CONFERENCE. 

Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Stoner, Scottdale, Pa $ 500 00 

John Thomas' Sons, Johnstown, Pa 500 00 

Rev. Lawrence Keister, Wilkinsburg, Pa 500 00 

C. E. Mullin, Mt. Pleasant, Pa 1,000 00 

Solomon Keister, Summit Mines, Pa 1,500 00 

Mrs. Mary A. Mullin, Mt. Pleasant, Pa 500 00 

Rev. Henry Shoemaker and wife, Dick, Pa 700 00 

Mt. Pleasant, Pa., United Brethren Church, per C. E. 

Mullin 1,075 00 

J. W. Ruth, Scottdale, Pa 1,500 00 

Rev. H. F. Shupe 100 00 

Solomon Stoner 200 00 

John Thomas, Johnstown, Pa 2,500 00 

J. Ankeny 50 00 

AUGLAIZE CONFERENCE. 

Jacob Sarver and Son, Spring Hill, Ohio 500 00 

Elisha Lollar, Saratoga, Ind 500 00 

Mrs. Jean Reid. Sidney, 500 00 

Rev. R. W. Wilgus 100 00 

Rev. J. P. Stewart 50 00 

Rev. Isaiah Imler 100 00 

313 



History of Otterbein University 

CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE. 

Wm. M. Dwyer and wife, Westerville, $ 500 00 

Prof. F. E. Miller, Westerville, 500 00 

Prof. J. E. Guitner, Westerville, 500 00 

J. A. Weinland, Westerville, 500 00 

Pres. T. J. Sanders, Westerville, 500 00 

John Knox, Westerville, 1,000 00 

John R. Williams, Westerville, Ohio 500 00 

J. L. Morrison, Westerville, O , 500 00 

Joseph Markley, Westerville, Ohio 500 00 

S. S. Rickley, Columbus, Ohio 1,000 00 

Lewis Gunn, Marion, Ohio 500 00 

Westerville U. B. Sunday School 2,500 00 

Class of 1894, Otterbein University 1,000 00 

Maria C. Flickinger, Atwood, 111 , 1,000 00 

Henry A. Flickinger, Atwood, 111 500 00 

Prof. L. H. McFadden, Westerville, 250 00 

Prof. W. J. Zuck, Westerville, 250 00 

Westerville Citizens 1,000 00 

Canal Winchester Sunday School 185 62 

Rev. Thos. Kohr, Westerville, 50 00 

Otterbein University Band, Westerville, 100 00 

F. M. Ranck, Westerville, 100 00 

Mrs. H. C. Roland, Westerville, 100 00 

Rev. H. A. Bovey, Westerville, 100 00 

Rose Fouts and sister, Westerville, 50 00 

Rev. D. Bonebrake, Westerville, 25 00 

Philip Farver, Westerville, 50 00 

Dr. A. W. Jones, Westerville, 100 00 

Prof. W. B. Kinnear, Westerville, 100 00 

EAST OHIO CONFERENCE. 

Jacob B. Sherrick, deceased 1,000 00 

Christian Snavely, Pigeon Run, 500 00 

Rev. O. W. Slusser, Akron, O 6 50 

Mrs. Christian Snavely, Pigeon Run, 100 00 

MIAMI CONFERENCE. 

Rev. C. W. Miller, Westerville, 500 00 

Fred H. Rike, Dayton, 1,000 00 

E. L. Shuey, Dayton, 500 00 

S. E. Kumler, Dayton, 3,000 00 

I. G. Kumler, Dayton, 1,000 00 

R. C. Kumler, Dayton, 500 00 

John A. Shauck, Dayton. 1,500 00 

John A. Gilbert family, Dayton, 1,000 00 

Prof. Henry Garst, Westerville, 1,000 00 

George Hartzell, Greenville, 1,000 00 

H. Albright, Greenville, 500 00 

Henry Markley, Sweet Wine, 1,000 00 

Geo. Zeller, Germantown, 500 00 

Joseph Shank, Germantown, 1,000 00 

John Shank and wife, Germantown, 1,000 00 

J. A. Coover, Spanker, Ohio 500 00 

Miss Kate Emrick, Middletown, 500 00 

Miss Minerva Willey, Ross, 1,000 00 

Mrs. Dr. J. E. Lowes, Dayton, O - XX^ SS 

A Friend (guaranteed) 1,000 00 

Vandalia Sunday School ^ X^R xS 

Summit Street Sunday School, Dayton, O h)l?X ™ 

Germantown Sunday School 1,000 00 

Dayton First U. B. Church Sunday School 1,276 00 

Geo. A. Lambert, Union City, Ind 1,000 00 

Arthur and John Gerlaugh, Harshman, 1,000 00 

A. and A. Leas, West Manchester, 500 00 

314 



Appendix B 



Joseph Sater and J. S. Wakefield, Preston, O $ 1,000 00 

D. L. Rike, Dayton, 6,500 00 

Rev. W. J. Shuey, Dayton, 1,000 00 

A Friend, cash 500 00 

Mrs. B. F. Witt, Dayton, 100 00 

Mrs. S. E. Kumler, Dayton, 50 00 

Miss Susie K. Rike, Dayton, 50 00 

Robert Kline, Dayton, 150 00 

Samuel Judy, Germantown, 100 00 

Miss Mary Bittle, Lewisburg, 50 00 

Cash. Rev. W. J. Pruner 61 10 

E. E Flickinger 25 00 

Antioch Sunday School 161 00 

Miss Etta Wolfe, Dayton, 50 00 

Beavertown Sunday School 108 65 

Miami Conference S. S. Association 100 00 

Amos Fellers, Dayton, 50 00 

Rev. E. E. Saul, Dayton, Ohio 35 00 

Oliver F. Gilbert, Dayton, Ohio 521 50 

A. W Gump, Dayton, 200 00 

D. K. Zeller, Richmond, Ind 200 00 

James Fellers, Dayton, 50 00 

B. F. Stoner, Sulphur Grove, 50 00 

Adam Horine, Castine, 100 00 

H. C. Hunt, Miamisburg, 100 00 

Miamisburg U. B. Sunday School 100 00 

Rev. C. W. Kurtz 12 37 

Mt. Zion Sunday School Ill 00 

Isaiah Wilson, Dayton, 50 00 

Mrs. Henry P. Kumler, Dayton, 100 00 

Henry B. Shoup, Dayton, 60 00 

L. A. Thompson, Dayton, 3 00 

NORTH OHIO CONFERENCE. 

Rev. S. P. Klotz, Waterloo, Ind 500 00 

Rev. Chas. A. Bowersox and Samuel Jarvis, 

Bryan, 500 00 

Geo. Perry and wife, La Otto, Ind 500 00 

ERIE CONFERENCE. 

A. Holeman 100 00 

MICHIGAN CONFERENCE. 

Cornelius Howard, Schoolcraft, Mich 50 00 

SANDUSKY CONFERENCE. 

Rev. Wilson Martin, Columbus Grove, 1,500 00 

Rev. D. R. Miller, Dayton, 100 00 

Mrs. C. Beaver, Fostoria, 1,000 00 

Rev. G. L. Bender, Harpter, 100 00 

SCIOTO CONFERENCE. 

John Hulitt, Rainsboro, 7,000 00 

W. H. Wright, Rainsboro, Ohio 100 00 

ST. JOSEPH CONFERENCE. 

Bishop N. Castle. Elkhart, Ind 1,000 00 

E. E. Richards, Roanoke, Ind 500 00 

S. H. Zent, Roanoke, Ind 500 00 

Wm. D. Hays, Ligonier, Ind 500 00 

D. A. Richter, Ligonier, Ind 500 00 

Ligonier Sunday School 500 00 

C. E. Shaffer 100 00 

Annanias Bughman 38 90 



315 



History of Otterbein University 

OHIO GERMAN CONFERENCE. 

G. Fritz $ 10 00 

North Dayton Sunday School 4 00 

J. Renensiger, Toledo, 11 25 

J. Floerke, Portsmouth, 6 00 

UNCLASSIFIED. 

Woman's Cooperative Circle 5,000 00 

George H. Bonebrake, Los Angeles, Cal 500 00 

Capt. Morris Schaff, Pittsfleld, Mass., cash 200 00 

W. P. Harford 100 00 

Cash 1 00 

J. W. Clereus, Berlin, Ontario 50 00 

Pioneer Mission, per N. W. Smith 4 75 

Total $85,612 14 



316 



JAN 30 1908 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



028 343 498 9 



